Liaisons of the Vampire Hours
by ercarterfan
Summary: She returns to County this time alone, hurting, going down a path of self destruction, she needs a friend to help her find herself again. An unexpected meeting leads to an unexpected lover and earns them the rage of a former lover.
1. Default Chapter

_**Liaisons in the Vampire Hours**_

_Disclaimer: Ah yeah well it is still the same I don't own them, won't claim to own them I am just borrowing them for a creative outlet. _

_A/N: I started writing this story back in June of 2004 and just rediscovered it tucked away in a folder on my pc. I am going to try and finish it now, please as always read review let me know what you think. Anna has always been one of my favorite characters._

**Chapter 1:**

Chicago February 2005…

Snow, it was snowing again. One would think that now that it was almost the end of February, it wouldn't be snowing anymore. Yet here it appeared that Old Man winter wasn't about to give up his hold on the windy city. It was cold, the grey skies that were hovering over the city didn't do anything to improve her foul mood in fact it seemed to make it even darker and more foul. She crossed the room and started the shower. She tried to ignore the soft snores that were coming from the other side of the bed. It would be just another one night stand that was laying there not awake and not aware of her moving through the silent apartment to leave before they awoke. There would be no awkward morning after conversation, no hard feelings that they would have to share, nothing that would remind her of the mistake that she had made.

She quickly showered and then gathered up her things. Not that she had brought much with her. She had picked him up the same way that she had picked up all the others, a friendly smile sitting at the bar looking alone. Guys seemed to flock to someone who looked almost desperate to find a man. And when you laugh at their jokes, let them buy you a beer or two, and then smile softly and say that you'd like to go someplace a little less crowded for a night cap, unless the man is married and happy to go home to what he has, you are usually taken up on it.

It saved her having to find a permanent place to stay. Worse case scenario and she wasn't able to find someone to go home with, she ended up on her brother's couch. Not that she was a whore, no, she didn't take money to do this, she just was looking for a different bed to sleep in, a one night stand, occasionally she did bump into the same guy and it would happen again, but for the most part, these were men that she only knew for a few hours, nothing more than a name exchanged between them, and that name would be forgotten by the next night. She would get up and leave and go to work like it had never happened. She never asked herself how a pediatrician who was also an excellent ER physician could fall so far so fast. She didn't want to go back to that place again.

Philadelphia November 2004

"_Anna, come on put the bags down, we don't have to do this." _

"_There is no us anymore." She snapped as she threw the last of what she wanted to take with her into a bag. "You made sure of that."_

"_Please don't walk out, we can work through this baby, it's not over, I made a mistake it won't happen again." _

"_Max," She said turning to face him, "no forget it, I am not going to sit here and let you fuck any blonde young 20 year old who turns your head and be the bed warmer the next night."_

"_Anna that's not fair." He said trying to get her to stay. _

"_Oh well it's not huh," she yelled now done keeping the peace between them, "well that's sure as what it looked like when I came home from work last night. Whose patient was she this time, Daniel's maybe Trevor's? What were you thinking bringing her back to our house, screwing another woman in our bed?"_

"_Does it really matter?" He asked trying now to pull the bag free off of her shoulder._

"_Oh you sure as hell bet it matters, I want to know which one of my doctors is setting my husband up with his little blonde toys." She snapped as she pulled even harder away from him, "forget it. I'm done with this it. You are so right it doesn't matter anymore cause I am not going to be around. You can have all the little blondes that you want." She flipped open her cell phone and hit the number for the ER where she worked. "Trevor good to hear your voice this morning. Put Nelson on the phone." Anna waited until she heard the man's voice come over the line. "Del Amico." She snapped into it, "I won't be in today, tomorrow or the day after that. I'm leaving for Chicago in 10 minutes."_

Chicago 2 weeks later

"Anna, get up off my couch!" A voice yelled from the kitchen.

"I'm moving," Anna said as she sat up, god she needed someplace other than Jeremy's couch to sleep on.

"Coffee's in the kitchen move it our your going to be late again." Her brother snapped at her, "I am not your alarm clock."

She moved into the kitchen a got a cup of the hot coffee trying to remove the sleep from her eyes. "Thank Jeremy, come on you know I won't be sleeping on your couch for long."

"You'd better not be. You're putting a serious kink in my dating life." He poked at his sister.

"Oh now I can't be doing that." She jabbed back. "No I'll find someplace soon don't you worry about that now none, but it's not me that's responsible for your dry spell there in the dating department."

"I don't know why you didn't just go over to County and get your job back that you had there." Jeremy said looking at his sister.

"Because when I was there I was a resident. I don't want the long hours and the crappy pay anymore okay. Mercy is just as good, better hours and definitely better pay."

"Ahh." He said smiling at her, "better get a move on it then if you want to keep that better paying job or you will be back at County."

She reached down and picked up her bag. "I will don't, god you are such a worry wart, you need a life." She said as she headed for the door.

"I have one thank you and soon it will not involve my sister sleeping on the couch because she has no life." He joked back.

"Hey don't wait up for me tonight okay. I'm going to go out with some friends from work." She smiled as she headed to catch the EL train pulling the door shut behind her.

Chicago… current day

Anna is late and is hurrying to pull her clothes on now; she might just make it before he wakes up. "Damn it." She said as she accidentally kicked the bed frame.

There's a grumbling noise from the bed followed by, "are you sneaking out on me already?"

Oh what does she say to that, she is sneaking out on him? She rubs the foot that she is holding the one that she hurt; she can't remember his name this isn't good, she knows that the silence isn't good and that she should say something, "yeah I got paged sorry I have to go into work."

"You have too?" She hears the voice from the bed say to her. Damn why can't she remember his name.

"Yeah sorry I have to, hazards of being a doctor." Anna replies back, "I'm really sorry," she thinks really hard for a minute, "Joe?"

"Gary." He says laying back on the bed, "you'd better not keep them waiting there, I had to be the reason you are late," She hears him pause now as if he's mimicking her, "Bridget."

Anna pulls her sweater on now, "yeah that's right, I'm really sorry Gary." She makes it a point to say his name this time getting right since he just told her, "thanks for last night I had a really good time."

Granted she could remember any of it, but she'd say it any way as she headed for the door. She hated these awkward moments in the morning especially since she knew that there was nothing more that would come of this. She had gotten used to the one nightstand and was in no way ready to have anything that resembled a relationship after being cut so deeply.

She walked out the door and headed now almost at a run for Mercy. She knew she couldn't be late again; she was already walking on thin ice as it was. She would have to go back to County if she ended up getting fired from there. Maybe she should fix up her resume to be on the safe side, her odds at remaining at Mercy were getting smaller with every passing second.


	2. It sucks you in

**Chapter 2: It sucks you in**

It was a good thing that Anna had fixed up her resume. She stood now outside the doors of County hospital once again. Except this time she wasn't a resident she was a doctor looking for work who had long since finished her residency. Her resume wasn't overly long she had some published articles in journals that added extra spice to it, but she had only worked at the one hospital in Philadelphia and had been in a way forced to leave that position when she caught her husband cheating on her.

She walked inside, things had really changed but then she kind of had to have expected them too. This might have been a County facility but renovations take place in all facilities over time. She had heard through the grapevine that Kerry Weaver was no longer Chief of Emergency Medicine but had worked all the way up to Chief of Staff and that it was a Doctor Susan Lewis who was now in charge of the ER.

Anna walked into the ER and headed straight for the first person who looked like they could help her. She told the triage nurse who she was and that she was there to talk to Dr. Lewis. Anna was buzzed back through the glass door and was pointed toward the admit desk. She stood there for one of the desk clerks actually looked familiar; no way could Jerry still be working there after all this time was he? She didn't recognize the other man but she wasn't overly worried about it as she regained her confidence and walked over.

"Excuse me; I'm looking for Dr. Lewis?" Anna said to the heavy set grumpy looking man who was working behind it.

"Take a number and she'll be with you as soon as she feels like it, which is probably never." He said rudely back to her.

"Actually I'm here for a job." Anna said.

"You and half of Chicago lady." Frank said back to her.

Anna wasn't getting anywhere with this guy and she didn't really want to raise the tone of her voice any. That might screw her chances at employment if she was found to be yelling at the desk clerks.

"Could you please just let me know which one she is or where I might be able to find her, or tell her that Dr. Del Amico is here to speak with her."

Carter had been standing at the board erasing his last two patients when he heard that voice, it couldn't be. Why would she be in Chicago, last he had heard of her was when she had left for Philadelphia with Max. He stopped what he was doing and turned around, "Anna? Anna Del Amico is that really you?"

Anna looked at him for a minute. "John Carter?"

"Oh man it really is you." Carter said crossing over to where Anna was standing, "what brings you to Chicago?"

"Long story," Anna says back to him not really in the mood to get into the details right now as to why she was in Chicago. "But hey I'm here and looking for work."

"Here at County again?" He said, "I thought Susan was the only sucker to come back here but I guess I'm wrong."

"What can I say I am glutting for punishment." Oh she was right on the money with that one.

"Have you been in Chicago long?" Carter asked her.

"Not long." She'd leave those details out too, after all she was sure Carter would never suspect her of being like that and the fewer people that knew about her new nocturnal habit's the better.

"I see." Carter said back to her, "how would you like to maybe grab dinner with me after I get off, catch up huh?"

Anna shrugs her shoulders if she took Carter up on dinner that would cut her bar time down, making a little harder to find someone to give her a bed to sleep in tonight. But then there was always Jeremy's couch. She hadn't had to sleep on it in a few months so surely he wouldn't complain.

Actually Jeremy would have a cow if he knew what Anna had been up to. She hadn't been like this in years. Well there was that time when she was younger when she went through this horrible rebellion phase, but that was when her parents were going through the divorce and didn't seem to have much time for anything. There was a lot of hostility between her parents.

"Yeah sure Carter that would be fine." Anna found herself finally answering him.

"Don't sound so enthusiastic there Anna." Carter said back to her, he had noticed that she had in the middle of their conversation somewhat drifted off and into another land.

"Sorry Carter." Anna screwed a smile on to her face, mostly for him rather than anyone else. "Just a little preoccupied that's all."

"I think just about anyone can see that." Carter said.

"Yeah well I really need a job so that I can get a place to stay." She found it so much easier to lie and be deceiving after all that had happened.

"I'm sure Dr. Lewis will be out here in a minute." Carter said as he picked up a chart and walked off.

Anna found her conscious kicking in now. She almost wished in a way she wasn't the person that she was, that she hadn't changed since she had left. Damn it, it was all Max's fault. She had tried not to think about it because every time she thought about it all she could see was her husband and some blonde in bed together. She should have just divorced the son of a bitch, but yet she still hadn't done that. But yet seeing that image in her mind still made her blood boil and pissed her off to the point of wanting to go out and do the exact same thing to him that he had done to her. Revenge was sweet at first, but now the taste was turning sour.

Anna met with Susan and managed to get back on the staff, granted the hours weren't that great. Susan wanted her to work nights, if she was working nights where was she going to sleep, you couldn't pick up men in the middle of the day in a bar, let alone at 7 am there were not any bars open. Crap, Anna took the job but found that it was going to present a problem that she was going to have to find a way to solve before she started to work in 24 hours.

Carter's couch, she could maybe manage to get him to give her a place to sleep for a night or two. After all they used to be friends, maybe she could weasel a night or two out of him before having to return to her brother's apartment. Jeremy couldn't complain though if she was there during the day cause that definitely wouldn't intruded on his dating life.

She walked out of the ER after getting the name of the place where she was supposed to meet Carter, she had naturally assumed that dinner included a couple of before dinner drinks maybe one or two after dinner drinks, but the place that he picked she knew it didn't have alcohol. Her drinking had been steadily increases over the time that she had been in Chicago too, that was her way of numbing everything else. It seemed to make it easier, make it so she could forget what in all reality she was doing.

She leaned against the wall standing there now as a gentle rain started to fall. She took some shelter under the over hang as she fought against the wet weather to light a cigarette, a habit that she once long ago had managed to kick but the stress of recent events made it come back with a haunting vengeance. She watched the people hurrying to get inside the ER and watched those who were leaving go. This was a place where you could people watch to your hearts content. And since she didn't have a lab coat on right now she blended in with the crowd more easily.

A man and his daughter walked by, followed by a young woman who appeared as if she might have been a waitress with a cut and bleeding hand, then a woman toting three small children, the smallest one an infant passed by on their way inside. Anna just stood there taking it all in.

'Not my type.' She found herself saying, 'no that's a bum' the thoughts that were now in her head, 'he might work… nope there's the wedding ring.' What was she honestly thinking about picking someone up outside the ER? She had done it over at Mercy once, well maybe twice, but the people that went to Mercy were a little better off for the most part than those that had to resort to a county hospital.

"Hey what are you still doing here?" A voice called from behind her, pulling Anna from her thoughts.

She turned to look to see who it was, but she was pretty sure who that voice belonged to, "I got lost Carter." She said sarcastically with a smile, "just wasn't sure where to go to kill time."

"Home that depressing?" He asked her.

"I don't…" She caught herself before finishing that one with where it was accidentally about to go that was the last thing that she needed right now, was for John Carter to know that she was basically homeless.

"You don't what?" He said looking at her with a seriousness, "what you don't have a home?"

She was silent as she looked down at the ground now unsure of how to answer that one. "Yeah I have a home." She sputtered out, 'it's in Philadelphia and my asshole husband lives in it.'

Carter just took Anna by the hand and started to lead her down the street something wasn't quite right with her, she didn't seem to be the person she was all those years ago, sure people changed and all but even her demeanor and the way she stood seemed to have changed, as if part of her independent nature had been sucked right out of her. He'd have to talk to her when they got someplace quiet and see if he couldn't get a little more out of her than what she had already said.


	3. People Change

**Chapter Three: People Change**

Carter and Anna walked down to the place that he had picked for them to have dinner, Anna looked at it for a minute, "hey do you think that we could maybe go someplace Italian?"

"Yeah I suppose we could." Carter said as he moved so that they could walk a little farther. "You have something in mind."

Anna just wanted a drink and she didn't care right now what the hell it was as long as it had some kind of alcohol content to it. "If you want someplace quiet there's a new restaurant that open up just on the other street." She said pulling him now towards it.

She led him inside and it wasn't long before they had a table towards the back of the restaurant back near the fire place where they could sit and talk. The place was small but there weren't a lot of people in there yet. The waiter came and right after Carter asked for a coke, she had spit out that she wanted a glass of merlot and hopefully they wouldn't take that long in getting it there. Granted she wanted something about 90 proof but she would take what she could get her hands on right now.

"So Anna," Carter said as the coke and wine were set down in front of them, "you haven't been in Chicago long enough to find a place to stay yet?"

"No I've actually just been staying with a few friends." Granted you couldn't call them friends and asked if she knew there names Anna could only recall Gary's name. "But I'm sure I'll find something soon."

Carter watched as she downed the Merlot like water motioning for the waiter to bring her another glass, there was something definitely wrong with her and it was going to take him some time to get to the bottom of it. "Friends, good ones I hope."

"Only the best." Anna gave him a half smile. "You know me."

"Yeah," He smiled back at her as glass number two went sliding down her throat once again as if it was water. Okay maybe he was being sensitive but that was two glasses in less than 10 minutes. "Everything other than that okay with you?"

"Ah everything is fine Carter." Anna started to relax now as she started her third glass of wine feeling much more relaxed now, "why wouldn't it be."

'No reason." He said back to her, "Glad that Susan was able to bring you back, we have been short an attending since Christmas."

"I'm glad that she could to." Down her throat went glass number three as she started in on four, she knew she was going rather fast but this just didn't have the same kick to it as the vodka shots, or even a good strong martini.

"You might want to slow down there a tad bit Anna." Carter said giving her a worried look. "That's an awful lot in a short period of time."

"I think I know my limits Carter." Anna said giving him an annoyed smile, "don't worry I'm fine. I always drink like this."

He tried hard now to hide concern, where had he heard that one before, oh yeah it sounded just like Abby. "Always like this huh," he said softly looking down.

"Yeah it's not a problem, it doesn't get in the way of my work and I am far from drunk or being drunk." Anna said looking over at him, "why is there something wrong with this Carter?" She asked.

Carter didn't look back up right away, he didn't want to ambush her and scare her off right now, "not if you have it under control."

"I do Carter." Anna said softly, as she looked over at him, "could you do me a favor though?"

"What that?" Carter asked.

"I was jogging yesterday and hit some ice and when I fell I popped my knee out of place, I can't get into see the my ortho doc until tomorrow would you mind writing me for maybe three or four vicodens to get me thru the night."

"I don't think that's a good idea Anna, I mean you should have someone look at it in the ER." Carter said looking at her his tone serious.

Anna moved so that he would be able to see and lifted the skirt she was wearing so that it exposed only her knee, "that's why I'm seeing him tomorrow," Her knee was black and blue and fairly swollen, "and why I only asked for three maybe four."

Carter was still reluctant to do it.

"If you don't want to that's fine." She said dropping her skirt, "I'll go back and sit in the ER, I just didn't want to tie up the ER for something that really if it didn't hurt…"

"Take some Advil."

Anna looked at him, that response from Carter was well rather cold, "yeah sure you have any?"

"Not right now." Carter said as he watched Anna lean over and start digging through her purse.

"I might have some, god what happened to the caring compassionate Carter I knew." She said.

"People change Anna, you'd better get used to it." Carter's tone had completely changed with her. For the person sitting across from him was not the person that he had known, she was completely different and he wasn't liking what he saw.

"Yeah tell me about it." She said her tone as cold as ice, "that's why I'm here."

"Want to tell me about it?" Carter said some of his compassion returning. Maybe a little gently poking and prodding he could get to the bottom of some of this. There had to be a reason for all of this.

"You don't want to hear about my life." She said rather dry and flat.

"Try me." Carter said, "That's what friends are for."

"Are we still friends Carter?" Anna asked.

"Yeah we are still friends, why wouldn't we be?" He replied back to her.

"Oh I don't know, how about for starters the way that I left Chicago, you didn't seem too thrilled about that." Anna said looking now across the table directly at him. Right now she wasn't to thrilled about that decision either, granted it had been good for a while but the way that it ended left much to be desired.

"That was you choice Anna." Carter said, "Who am I to hold that against you. You wanted to go back and be with your family and Max just happened to be there giving you an excuse to go."

"He wasn't an excuse Carter." Anna said.

"Sorry." Carter replied, "I didn't mean it like that."

"How did you mean it then?" She asked him, her eyes intently focused on him now.

"I just didn't think he was good enough for you." Carter said honestly. "After all that you told me about him."

"I painted a rather one sided picture." Anna said, she wanted to say that at that point in time he was a rather good guy but after everything that had happened she just couldn't do it, "what can I say I made a giant mistake."

"It's really okay Anna." Carter said, "You did what you thought was right, what you wanted, we never know how things are going to turn out."

"Got that one right." Anna said looking down now, she just didn't think that Carter wanted to hear about all this and she really didn't want to go into her horrific behavior over the past few weeks. And she knew it was horrific behavior, it had just kept dragging her further and further down, fueling her need to do it more.

"What's wrong Anna?" Carter asked her now, "something is defiantly wrong with you; you can tell by the way that you are acting."

"Long story Carter." Anna replied.

"I have time." Carter said reaching across the table taking her hand into his.

Anna slowly started to tell Carter about everything that had happened. Why she had left Chicago, what had happened since she had gotten there, of course Anna left out a few details, the ones that she didn't think that he needed to know, but she painted a rather grim picture of her life. They sat and talked, Anna tried to slow down drinking but the more she talked, the more depressed she became and the more she wanted to numb the pain.


	4. How dare you!

**Chapter 4: How dare you?**

Carter had in the end offered Anna a couch to sleep on, well he did one better than that, he gave her an actual bed to sleep in. Granted there were some minor conditions on her staying with him, which Carter thought Anna was rather overly willing to consent to.

He told her that there would be no drinking while she was staying with him, that she couldn't have alcohol at the house, and no men. She couldn't randomly bring someone home with her. Those were conditions that Anna was more than willing to live with. Part of the reason she had been sleeping around was, well to get even with Max and to have a warm bed to sleep on that wasn't in her brother's living room.

Four months went by without incident and Anna had seemed to be adjusting to the sober life quite well. She had been going faithfully to AA meeting with Carter, but she still put her foot down when Carter brought up any kind of a drug addiction. She was insistent that she had no drug problem, and during all the time that she had been with Carter he never once saw her take anything more than some Advil for the occasional headache.

Anna had been working hard at County and seemed to fit in with the other attending there quite well. She was working on making friends and everyone seemed to rather enjoy working with her. Now that Anna had sobered up and was working on getting her life back together, she had even been talking about moving out of Carter's house and into a place of her own.

Carter had told her to take her time with that. He knew that she was doing better but he didn't want her to feel like she had to hurry up and find a place to live, for as long as she was doing so well, he wanted to, in his own way make sure that she continued to do well. Anna seemed to be thriving in Chicago now that she had come to terms with the bad things that had happened in Chicago, found other ways to deal with her anger and hurt.

It was now June and Anna was still working the night shifts, she didn't mind for it made it easier for her to stay out of trouble that way. It had been a good thing and removed any temptation to go out and do the things that she knew she shouldn't be doing, those things that just weren't good for her.

She was working a 12 hour shift tonight from seven that night until seven the next morning. She was all smiles after getting in some much needed sleep during the day with Carter working the day shift the house was quiet and she could do some serious sleeping.

She picked up her next chart and headed into the exam room, "Mr. Gravers I'm Dr. Del Amico." She said smiling as she sat down in a chair next to her patient, "what seems to be the trouble tonight."

He looked at her, it had been awhile since he had gotten such a friendly doctor in this place, "I was moving some stuff from my basement and tripped on the stair." He said looking now at Anna, "I think I might have messed up my knee."

"Let me take a look at it." Anna said as she moved so that she was in front of his knee. She looked it over, he defiantly had bruised it really well and from the looks of it there was some fluid built up in the joint. "I might have to tap the joint." Anna said, "There's some fluid building up in the joint space from where," she looked up at him, "did you hit it or twist it when you tripped?"

"I'm not sure," he said looking at her, Anna could tell that the man was in some serious pain, "I tripped and there was a loud pop, I might have hit it when I hit the stairs."

She smiled softly at him, "Well I will get it feeling better here in a few minutes." Anna patted his good knee. "I'll have a nurse come in and set us up. It will feel better once we get the fluid off." She stood up now, "I'll be back." She left the room and headed for the admit desk. "Chuny could you set me up for a tap in three." Anna asked with a soft smile, "I need to drain a knee."

"Yeah I'll do it next." Chuny said smiling at Anna. She always seemed to have such a sweet demeanor when she was working never barking orders at the nurses but always asking them if they could do something and she was one of the few physicians that if the nurses were busy she would do it herself.

Anna wrote on the chart quickly before handing it over to Chuny, "thanks." She said with her same soft sweet smile. She had a couple of patients to check on before she could drain the knee. "I'll give Mr. Patterson the Lasix," she said, "I need to check on him anyway."

Chuny just shook her head, Anna needed to work with the medical students that they had, and they could learn a lot from her. Anna went in and took care of Mr. Patterson before heading back to the admit desk.

"Dr. Del Amico?" Anna heard a voice trying to get her attention. She glances up to see Dr. Pratt standing there.

"Yeah?" Anna looked at him for a minute, "what do you need?" She was used to residents and interns coming up to her asking tons of questions, after all County was a teaching hospital.

"You have the patient in three?" He asked her.

"Yeah I was going to drain his knee here in a minute." Anna said, "Why?"

"He's a turkey." Pratt said to her his tone rather flat as if he knew it all being a third year resident, and having been there longer than she had been.

"Excuse me." Anna said looking at the cocky young resident now.

"A turkey, drug seeker, addict," Pratt said, "need I go on. You need to dispo…"

Anna cut him off right there, "excuse me Dr. Pratt, but I think you have just crossed the line." She said her eyes glaring at him, "I'm the attending here tonight you are the resident, I would appreciate it if you would remember that."

"But he's a drug…."

She cut him off again, "have you even looked at the patient Dr. Pratt?"

"No I haven't but that doesn't change the fact that he's…"

She had to do it again, she normally didn't cut residents off so quickly but this one had jumped to conclusions. "And if he is what you consider a turkey or an addict that he doesn't deserve medical treatment."

"He's searching for narcotics and it appears that he has you hooked into giving them to him." Pratt said to her.

"Dr. Pratt," Anna said, "you haven't examined that patient, regardless of what he might or might not be that man's knee has fluid accumulating behind it and I have every intention of draining it so that he will be more comfortable." She said, "You would be wise not to tell me how to treat my patients."

"You are wasting your time." He said to her, "that guy will be back here later tonight looking for more meds."

"Dr. Pratt," Anna said her patients were almost to an end with this young resident. "How would you like it if someone made assumptions about you?" Anna asked him point blank.

"They do all the time." He said.

"Yeah I bet the do, and you don't like it do you?" She said back to him.

"Well no I don't but it's a part of life."

"This is a hospital and that man has an injury that needs to be treated, I have every intention of treating that injury and if it is brought to my attention that he is indeed having problems with pain medications then I will make sure that he gets the help that he needs." She said there was firmness to her tone, one that was telling Pratt that he was barking at the wrong attending. "Now doctor, I am sure that you have patients that need attending to, I suggest you get back to work."

Anna turned and headed back down the hallway, this patient needed his knee drained and she wasn't going to let a resident tell her how to treat a patient, even if he had been at county longer than she had been.


	5. Turkey Feathers

**Chapter 5: Turkey feathers**

Anna discharged two more of her patients, and was now waiting on beds for the other three for the night. It had slowed down some and she headed out into the bay for a little bit of air and a short break.

"Shooting hoops, venting frustrations I hope." Anna said as she crossed over to where the same young resident she had butted heads with earlier in the evening was shooting the basketball.

"Yeah," he said shooting the ball at the hoop it sailed in almost effortlessly.

"Look about earlier." She said. She didn't want to leave things bad between her and her residents.

"Don't worry about it, we're cool." He said rolling the ball so that it sat below the hoop again. "You were right about the knee."

"Yeah I know I was." She said, "But that's not the point."

"There's a point to this, wow that must be a first you want to belittle me some more or point out again that I'm just a resident who really doesn't know much in your eyes?"

"Pratt look," Anna said, "I know I might be the new attending on the block and all, and that you have been here in this hospital longer than I have. But that doesn't mean that I don't know anything either."

"I know," Pratt said looking up at her now, "but he was in the turkey file."

"Pratt that really doesn't matter right now, that's not the point that I am trying to make." She said moving so that she was looking at him, "the point that I am trying to make is that I need the residents, the interns, and the medical students to trust my medical judgment." Anna said, "I have several years of experience behind me. It's that experience, drug seekers or not if they have a clear medical problem we have to treat it, we can't just make assumptions and sent them on their way. That knee needed to be taken care of regardless of what he was or wasn't."

Pratt just looked at Anna for a minute before saying anything else. "I'll try and stay out of your patients." He said looking down, "really I will. Your right I made the assumption that just cause you are new here you wouldn't know a turkey if it walked up and bit you in the butt."

That got him a small bit of laughter from Anna. She just smiled at him, "yeah well I guess I should say thanks for that one."

Pratt and Anna sat down on the loading dock in the bay and started talking. He told her about how long he had been there and what had been going on since he had gotten there. She listened actually glad that he was talking to her. She really wasn't a bad person, or doctor and she needed those who worked under her to know that. They had just managed to get off on the wrong foot but it seemed to be improving some now as they talked. They even managed to share a couple of laughs between the two of them.

"You're not such a bad guy after all." Anna said with a small laugh, "cocky but I think that you will go far."

"Thank you, I think." He said leaning back, "I should get back in there. By now the interns that are on are probably going ape with out supervision."

She smiled over at him, "that I don't envy you about. I don't miss being an intern and I surely don't miss being a resident."

"Ha, well someone has to do it, and tonight that someone just happens to be me." He said pulling himself up off the loading dock now.

Anna's eyes went out over the bay, catching a glimpse of someone that she didn't want to see. "I need to get back inside." She said with a hint of panic in her voice. She almost bolted for the door now hoping to get in there before he saw her.

Anna didn't want to deal with him and she knew that she had just practically ran away from Pratt probably leaving him confused but she was confused now. Why was he back here, why in gods green earth did he have to come to Chicago after she had managed to severe all the ties? She was in the process of severing the one last tie that held her to him. That was the fact that they were married, he should have gotten the papers by now oh god was that why he was here? To give her some horrible news that he refused to sign them or something that he was going to contest their divorce?

She ran into the relative safety of the ER. He wasn't going to be able to just come waltzing back here and surely he wouldn't cause a scene now would he? Anna just didn't know. She didn't know what to expect. Had he seen her sitting out there with Pratt talking innocently with her resident? Damn it all to hell and gone she was now a basket case of nerves.

Max watched his wayward wife running for the ER. He crossed over heading for the doors now as he looked the man over that she had been sitting with, so this is what she had gone to, what she had resorted to after she had left him in Philadelphia. Was that man the reason now for the divorce papers that he had received from her? Max had started drinking when he got on the plane, had two or three more at the airport and then while he was standing lurking in the shadows of the bay watching her polished off a 5th of Jack Daniels. Jack had become his best friend over the time that she had been gone, warming him, easing his lonely heart.

He stumbled his way now in through the ER door, he knew she was in there, she would have to come out and face him sooner or later. He was bound and determined that he was going to see her that she was going to talk to him, that this was going to end tonight and she would be a plane back to Philadelphia home where she belonged. He looked around the dingy waiting room, nearly empty except for a few poor souls looking for a warm bed and a hot meal. "Anna," He bellowed out now as he headed for the doors, glancing over at the triage Nurse, "I'm here to see Dr. Del Amico," he slurred out, "could you let me back my wife is expecting me." He made sure that his tone was loud and carried.

Anna was hiding back behind the admit desk, she could see him but he couldn't see her she didn't think. Quietly and quickly she walked over to the nearest security guard he needed to go before he did something to someone. Anna grabbed him by the arm so that he knew she was there, "excuse me, that man out there is claiming to be my husband, he's not could you please remove him from the premises?" She asked her voice almost shaking she was nervous upset and scared, how could he do this to her.

She watched from where she couldn't be easily seen as the security guards went out to deal with the problem at hand. She watched as Max made an even bigger scene as he was escorted out of the building. Anna's hands were shaking now, her stomach was turning, she still had to finish her shift and it was going to be a long night now knowing that he had come back to find her.


	6. Night meets day, day meets night

**Chapter 6: Night meet day, day meets night**

She finished her shift and watched the sun come up over Chicago. She was sitting at the admit desk munching on a donut that one of the interns had brought in, in an attempt to butter up the nurses, who Anna already had buttered up, rather with kindness that fattening foods. She sipped on her coffee as she watched the day shift start to filter in; it would be time for her to go home soon.

"Morning what do you have for me today?" Carter said as he walked up to the admit desk.

Anna turned around, hoping that some of the color had returned to her face from her experience last night, "Mr. Jones in curtain two is sleeping off having too much to drink, exam 3 is a very sweet little old lady who just got lost and we are waiting on her family, failure to fly is located in curtain 4." Anna started to rattle off her patients to him. "And that will be your morning."

"Ah, thanks Anna you have left me with all the good stuff." Carter said smiling at her.

"Yeah and that is why after working the night shift I am on my fourth pair of scrubs." She said poking back sarcastically. "Well the sun is now up and I must return to my lair to sleep." She joked, "Because if I am exposed for too long I will spontaneously combust."

Pratt was walking by after handing off his last patient to the new resident, "yes she will and a woman in flames is such a turn on too." He smiled at her, "good day, good night, which ever I'm out of here."

"You vampires both of you. Pratt you stay away from her, I don't need her corrupted." Carter called out to his retreating form.

"Well too late, we've already bonded Carter." Anna said, "And I bid you all a fond ado."

Carter just shook his head as he watched her pick up her stuff and head out of the ER. He was completely unaware of the previous night's events.

"Hey Pratt wait up." Anna called as she came out of the ER into the glaring sunlight, she threw her sunglasses up over her eyes to shade them from the sun, and "damn I might just combust yet." She muttered.

"What do you need?" Pratt called back turning around to see the blonde doctor coming out of the ER.

She caught up with him, "I just thought that I would see if you might want to grab some breakfast."

Pratt looked at her; Anna was a very attractive woman. "Yeah I think we could do that."

Anna gave him a soft smile, "great." She said looking around, "we could go to Ike's." She said that was really the only place that she knew of.

"Yeah sure." He said as they started across the street.

Max watched from the corner of the ambulance bay as Anna and the doctor headed into the diner. He could feel his blood start to boil, how dare she be with him right now. That man was with his wife, Anna was still his and even if she didn't realize it yet she was supposed to be with him, not some young doctor.

He moved cautiously, carefully so as to not alert them to the fact that he was watching them, plotting his next move, he couldn't stand by and be idle while some man moved in on what he thought was rightfully his. No man was going to take away his wife. He had been waiting all this time for her to realize that she had made a mistake and come back to him in Philadelphia but when after all this time she didn't return he knew that it was up to him to go, to fetch her, to bring her back to her place beside him, and only him.

There was something about the doctor that was sitting across the table from her inside Ike's that had Anna's head spinning. She couldn't take her eyes off him, she wasn't sure if this was some sort of odd instant attraction, perhaps jealousy from seeing Max, that was making her heart race like it was. All that Anna knew right now was that she couldn't get those thoughts out of her head. She was finding it hard to keep her hands to herself and she hoped that he was feeling the same way that she was right now.

They ate while making small talk about anything and everything. Neither of them wanting to be in silence, both of their minds going in the same direction. When they left Ike's it was almost as if nothing needed to be said between them, she had her hand in his as they walked over and up to the EL train now.

Her heart was pounding now in her chest as they walked up the stairs to his apartment, he unlocked the door ushering her quickly inside. And when they door was safely closed behind them locked, in the shade drawn room, they began the dance only lovers can do.

Max stood and watched her climbing up the stairs towards that man's apartment, it took all the restraint that he had inside him not to go over there and start something. No he wanted to be sober when he gave her what she deserved for betraying him so. In his eyes she had betrayed him, this was not his Anna, this was not the woman that he had married she had turned into something else, and she would pay dearly for this.

Anna's heart beat was starting to return to its previous state and her breathing was slowing down again. Her eyes were still closed as she snuggled a little more into Pratt's arms, calling him that right now sounded way too weird, "Greg," she said softly, "that was amazing." She stifled a giggle now, realizing that she probably sounded like a teenager.

Pratt pushed her hair back from her face as he looked down at her. She had a smile of contentment on her face as he wrapped his arms around her a little tighter, "we might have to do this again." He said kissing her forehead, "but right now I think we both could use some sleep."

Anna just nodded from behind her closed eyes she had already started to drift off on him after being up all night. Maybe getting close to someone after all wasn't going to be a bad thing. He seemed like a great guy and they had a lot in common other than medicine. She had, had a great time talking to him and rather enjoyed his company. This might have been the start of something with potential.

Max stood outside the apartment fuming over the fact that she had gone up there over five hours ago and had not come back outside yet. As he sat on a bench across the street thinking and plotting of how he was going to remove the thorn in his side, he couldn't get her off his mind. She was the only thing that he could think about. The feeling of her skin beneath his, the way that she threw her head back, her eyes how they danced when they were together. He wanted that back. Max was bent on getting his Anna back.


	7. It's been one month

**Chapter 7: It's been one month**

Anna had been spending a lot more time with Pratt and less time with Carter. There was something about Pratt that she was really enjoying. They had gone out for several breakfasts now after their shifts and then, well back to his apartment. There was more than just the sexual attraction there, they had spent hours talking about anything and everything while either eating, snuggling, getting ready for work, or while they were working together.

They had been together if that's what you could call it, for a month now, or what she thought was about a month. Time had flown by faster than she thought that it would, be she was in a fairly stable semi-relationship. June had faded into July now and she thought that all was well, for she hadn't seen or heard from Max for about as long as she had been seeing Greg.

"Ah the day shift has come to rescue you." Carter said looking over the board.

"We don't need rescued Carter, as you can see your board is almost cleared. Except for the two drunks that are sleeping in exam two and the MI waiting for a bed upstairs." Anna said holding out the three charts for him.

"All is well then." Carter said taking them from her hands.

"Yeah because I don't let the night slack the way you let the daytime slack, and there's more of you on during the day then there is of us at night." Anna smiled over at him now with a grin, "see you tonight, and do not let this board be a mess again when I come in tonight."

"Hey there baby." Greg came up from behind her and wrapped his arms around Anna's waist, "you about ready to go?"

"Yeah I am." Anna replied back to him with a smile on her face, "I just have to get my stuff from the lounge."

"Okay," Pratt said kissing her cheek as he then watched her walk off down the hall letting out a soft sigh.

"Love has struck in the ER." Carter said watching the two of them. "Better be careful Pratt she's a heartbreaker." Carter let out a little laugh when he said that.

Pratt just looked at him, "Anna no, she's cool." He said waiting for her to come back as he leaned against the admit desk, "been with her a month as of yesterday."

"What you keep track?" Carter said almost amazed.

"Yes, I do." Pratt said looking at him, "Going take the little lady out for breakfast and I think it's time we had that exclusive dating talk."

"Wow I never took you for the one woman kind of guy." Carter said looking at him. "Let alone one who would remember something like that."

"Anna's not just any woman." Pratt said with a smile on his face, "she's pretty special."

"You don't have to tell me that Pratt." Carter said as he got ready to go back to work.

"What man you jealous or something, I didn't know you liked her." He cocked his head to one side looking at Carter, there was something about the look on his face that said that he had strayed into Carter's territory, "man I didn't' know."

"She and I are old history, very old history Pratt." Carter said charts in hands now as he headed down the hall, "have a good day." With that Carter headed down the hall and into an exam room.

Anna came out of the lounge a few minutes later, "ready to go sweetie?"

"I think I pissed Carter off." Pratt said before looking at Anna again. "But yeah I'm ready to go." He put his arm around her again as they headed out of the ER, "why don't we grab breakfast someplace else today." Pratt said as he led her this time over to his car.

"Sure." She said softly, "we can go anywhere you want to sweetie. Just not too far or to long cause I'm pretty tired." She let out a yawn. "Someone kept me up too much yesterday."

He started the car, "well then how about if we skip going out for breakfast go home get some shut eye and then we can go maybe grab an early dinner late lunch before we have to go into work."

Anna's head rested on the back of the seat, "yeah that sounds good." She was having a hard time keeping her eyes open now. She really needed some sleep and wasn't sure if she would get that when they got back to the apartment.

They made the drive across town back to his apartment. Pratt opened the car door for her and practically carried her up the stairs and inside. "You are tired baby." He said making sure that she was on the bed, he tucked her in. He then made sure that the drapes were pulled closed so that the room was dark making it easier for her to sleep, not that she needed much help. Anna was now dead to the world around her.

"Hey sleepy head," Pratt said as he tried to wake Anna up several hours later, it was getting to be late afternoon now and she had been out for almost eight hours. He had never seen her sleep this long at a stretch, but then he didn't think that she had lain down at all when they were slow last night either. She really needed a day off. He had an egg salad sandwich for her if he could get her to wake up enough to eat; she'd gone awhile with out anything.

"Hmm," she said as she tried to force her eyes open. She wasn't sure why she was so sleepy today it's not like she had done anything that she wasn't used to.

"Are you feeling okay Anna?" Pratt asked her as he put his hand to her forehead. She felt a little warm to him.

"Yeah I'm just tired." Anna said still from behind closed eyes. "Really tired."

"Are you sure?" He asked her again. "I should get you some Tylenol you feel a little warm."

"Greg it's a hundred degrees outside, that's probably why I am warm." Anna said back to him. She just felt off right now and was attributing it to the excessive heat and long hours. She usually made time to sneak in a midnight nap in the on-call room but last night hadn't even managed to find it. They weren't overly busy last night but every time she turned around there was a med student under foot wanting to be shown how to do something.

She curled up against him now her eyes still closed, however her stomach then decided to get extremely upset with her when she smelled the sandwich that was sitting near the bed.

"Uh oh." Anna bolted off the bed and into the bathroom hitting her knees as she got through the door. This wasn't good she had felt fine when she laid down that morning just tired, in fact she was still tired but preoccupied with emptying her stomach. Perhaps it was just a touch of the flu that was plaguing her after all she worked in an ER what else could it be.

When she was done, she quickly rinsed out her mouth brushing her teeth to get rid of that I've just been sick feeling and returned to the bed. She looked at Pratt who was looking at her, "really I'm fine." She said curling back up on the bed. "It's probably just the flu." She honestly believed that right now.

"Yeah I bet." He said, "I'm going to call in, you don't need to be going to work if you are throwing up." Greg was worried about her somewhat. "If you don't keep anything down later you are going in to the ER when I get back from work."

"Okay, you over protective barbarian." She said softly her eyes drifting back shut again and before he could say anything to her Anna was snoring softly again.

Pratt got ready for work and left Anna sleeping in the bed, he had called her in sick and was hesitant to leave her alone when he knew she wasn't feeling good but surely she would be okay for a little while on her own. Its not like she was deathly ill, the woman had thrown up once. She just needed to sleep, and sleep was what she was going to get. Pratt finished dressing and he left her alone still sleeping locking the door behind him as he headed for County.

Anna woke up to the apartment being dark now and there were no sounds. She pulled herself out of the bed her stomach had seemed to have settled down on its own. She walked into the kitchen finding some 7-up to sip at, she was still very tired. But happy that her stomach had managed to settle down.

She heard her cell phone ringing now as she searched to figure out where Greg had put it. She found it flipping it open, "hello." She said as she brought it up to her ear.

"I know what you've been doing." A very familiar voice said over the line.

Anna about dropped the phone, it took her a minute to recompose herself. She didn't say anything, not sure what to say to him right now.

"You need to stop Anna." Max's voice, she knew that voice. "It could be dangerous to your health."

"Are you threatening me?" It might have sounded like a simple stupid question but Max was harmless in her eyes, he had never done anything to anyone before, and well she had never seen him even raise his voice to anyone.

"I'm telling you what I see Anna, that what I see isn't good for a married woman…"

"I'm not married to you anymore Max, have your forgotten that part? We are divorced. I'm single your single, I don't bother you, you don't bother me."

"No we are not!"

Anna couldn't believe that he was yelling at her now over the phone, that he had called her, why couldn't he just let go off all this and move on.

"Yeah we are. You screwed around on me it's over and it has been for a long time, you have to accept that and move on." She said getting angry with him.

"Know that I know what you are doing, that I know what you have been up too and that continuing to do so is not good for either of you. I don't appreciate it Anna and I won't tolerate it, someone's going to end up getting hurt if this goes on, that I can promise you."

The line went dead before she could say anything back to him. Her hands were shaking now as she wondered what he was talking about, why he would threaten her like that; she had never done anything to hurt him ever. The Max that she knew was gentle and could never hurt anyone he didn't even have a temper. He had begged her not to walk out when she was so mad that day. Now here he was telling her that seeing Greg was hazardous to her health. It just didn't make any sense; surely he had to be joking. Max was probably just blowing off steam and trying to rattle her. She tossed the phone back onto the counter and decided to return to bed.


	8. White or blue?

**Chapter 8: White or blue?**

Another week passed and Anna and Greg had decided that they would be exclusive. Max hadn't called again and Anna hadn't said anything to Greg or Carter for that matter about the phone call, she didn't see any reason to. Her stomach bug had however over the past few days continued to plague her and she was still overly tired.

Another two weeks passed, Greg and Anna had been together now for 8 weeks. While it wasn't a fairly long relationship, it looked good. They were getting along better than she ever thought that they would and she had moved most of her clothing from Carter's over to Greg's since she was now over there the majority of the time. Granted two months seemed to be rushing it when it came to moving in with someone but at the time it just seemed to make sense, it's not like she had really been living anywhere the entire time that she had been in Chicago, and well if she was going to be waking up there every morning she might as well have her stuff there.

"Anna I think you should see someone about this." Greg said as they were getting ready to head to work.

"I'm okay, really I am." She said back pulling her top on. "You worry too much, I just got run down that's all, and I'll be right as rain here soon."

"You are now are you? And you will be right as rain huh?" He said looking at her watching her as she dressed, "you are tired all the time, you are eating like a bird and throwing up nightly…." His voice trailed off now.

"You are not thinking what I am thinking you are thinking, because if you are thinking what I think you are thinking, that just can't be right." Anna said her eyes wide now.

"Hello Dr. Anna, are you late?" He said looking at her wondering now if the impossible might be possible.

Anna reached over for her date book now. She kept track of it in there, not that she really ever had to worry about it but she did.

"What you don't know off the top of your head?" Pratt asked her now.

Anna gave him an evil glance now, "no I don't know off the top of my head, with everything else that I have to remember I keep track of it in here." She said opening it up to June scanning toward the first of the month, since it was now the end of July and she didn't remember how long ago it really had been. She counted back four week and there was nothing, she counted back five weeks and there was nothing. Six weeks still nothing, now she was getting worried, she finally found it, there at the end of May were those familiar little crosses marking off the days at the end of the month. There were none of those to be found in June and none in July. Anna's face grew whiter as the realization set in as to what was or rather was highly like to have happened.

Greg knew from her face now that this might be a reality, "oh god how we were so careful."

Anna was silent as she thought back, her face showing just how terrified she was, "that first night, round three, we broke the condom." Anna used the word we because she knew if it had happened it took both of them, it wasn't specifically her fault, and it wasn't his fault, these things just happened right?

Pratt sat down on the bed he had to, "it will be okay." He said reaching over and touching her leg. He looked over at her again.

Anna's face was still white and she was in shock, definitely in shock. What was she going to do? How could this be happening to her? Could she handle raising a baby? She just stared at Pratt now with a blank expression on her face. She didn't even have her own place in Chicago; from the time that she had arrived she had been living off someone else. She had crashed on someone's couch or found refuge in someone else's bed for a few hours of sleep before slinking off most of the time before the sun was even up in the sky.

"Anna baby," he said in a soft compassionate tone. He couldn't help but notice how quiet she had gotten in the past couple of minutes. Anna appeared to be lost deep in her own thoughts. "Are you okay?"

It took her a minute before she was able to answer him. The thought that this could have happened was a bit overwhelming to say the least and she didn't know if this was something that would make him happy or if it was something that was going to make him mad as hell with her. "What are we going to do?" She said as she finally found her voice, albeit weak and small she did manage to get a few words out. She wasn't expecting this, she didn't plan this, and oh god he was going to hate her for this. Anna could feel the paranoia setting in as she started to wring her hands.

"We are going to wait and find out what's going on before we jump to conclusions." Pratt said in a calm and gentle voice, he didn't want her to be scared or even worried about this, right now he wasn't they would deal with it when they knew for sure what was going on. "Might just be one of those pregnancy scare deals you know?"

There were tears starting to fall down Anna's cheeks now, she was worried and she was scared. Thoughts were running through her head a million miles an hour now and she couldn't get them to stop, and she didn't even know for sure yet if she was pregnant, he was right it might have just been a scare. Anna had been under a lot of stress lately, but this wasn't the first time in her life that she had been, this was however a first for her, for she had never had this happen.

Greg reached up and wiped away the tears, "whatever happens Anna, just know that I have come to love you."

Anna leaned against him now, those where three words that she never thought she would ever hear anyone say to her again. Coming from him though, they seemed heartfelt and they didn't send her into a state of panic. If anyone else, in any other time had even thought about saying those words to her she would have bolted, ran like the wind. Anna didn't want to be dependent on anyone, she really didn't want to trust anyone, and for certain she never wanted to be vulnerable, especially to a man or being open to having her heart broken again like that. Men were not to be trusted. But for some reason Anna found herself wanting to trust Greg. He had gotten past her defenses, and into her life on more than one level.

She swallowed hard now wondering if what she felt could be expressed in words, she swore months ago that she would never say that to another man, that she would never let her heart be that exposed again, but things had changed so much, in ways that she never expected them too, her voice was still weak and shaky, "I love you too."

He dried her tears, "then come on we are going to be late." He helped her up to her feet. He couldn't help but wonder now if he was about to become a father or if this was just one of those scares. Looking at her, when Pratt really looked at Anna, there was a glow to her. In his eyes she was beautiful and perfect in so many ways. He didn't think that having a baby was going to be a bad thing, he had wanted kids, he just thought that he might have the wife and the house in the suburbs before the baby came, but either way he wasn't going to make this into some big deal and upset her even more.

When they arrived at work, Pratt told her that they would meet up later and find out the answer to the question that they had both been thinking about but for now they had a board that needed tended too. It took them only a few short hours to get things somewhat under control about midnight there was a lull in the ER crowd. He went and found her waiting for her to finish up with the patient that she was with.

"Come on Anna." He said taking her hand as the walked down the hallway. They stood outside the female employee's locker room now, "here ya go." He smiled softly at her, "just do your thing and then you and I can do the rest." He shrugged his shoulders, "because I can't help you with this part."

Anna laughed a little for the first time all night, "Okay give me a minute." She said as she slipped inside the room not thrilled to be doing this. She did what she needed to do, and after washing her hands, she opened the door, "there's no one in here come on." She practically pulled him inside.

"Okay let's do this." Pratt said taking a deep breath, "how hard can one of these things be I mean they do them all the time right?"

Anna looked at him, "they do them all the time? Greg what are you talking about?" He definitely had her puzzled by his last statement.

"The lab they do them all the time right?"

Anna's eyes got really big and she had to laugh, "oh my, we are in trouble now."

"What's so funny?" He asked looking at her seriously.

"Honey, it's an EPT, you don't send it to the lab." She took it out of his hands.

Greg sighed watching Anna make short work of setting the pregnancy test on the counter. Once she had done what she needed to she looked back at him, "now what Anna."

"Wait three minutes, if it doesn't do anything we are okay, if it turns blue we have some decisions to make." She tried not to hold her breath now.

Both of there gazes were glued to the test sitting on the counter now. Anna found herself holding onto him as the minutes seemed to drag on forever, one passed, then two and then it started to happen first a faint blue streak getting larger and darker until the entire area was blue.

Pratt just held onto her, holding her up now as he was seeing the same thing that she was seeing, "so I guess we are having a baby."

Anna ran her hand thru her hair she didn't know what to say, the reality of the situation was still sinking in, obviously it had hit him much faster than it had hit her. "Is that what you want?"

He looked at her, "well you said if it turned blue…"

Anna cut him off right there and then, "Greg that's not what I asked." She said looking at him seriously now, "do you want to have a baby?"

"Yes," He said rather calmly and collected. She didn't know how he was doing that. "If you and I are having a baby, we are having a baby and I am happy about it."

Her hands dropped down resting across her currently flat stomach, "yeah we are having a baby." Anna's smile grew a little when she saw that he wasn't upset, he wasn't angry with her, she looked down at the floor for a minute, "I thought you would hate me."

"No, Anna baby," he said softly as he hugged her close to him, "we did this together, and we will go through it together. I'm not going to hate you and I'm not going to abandon you and our… well our… guess for now it's either our baby or our child."


	9. What goes up must come down

**Chapter 9: What goes up must come down**

July had quickly turned into August; Anna was scheduled for her first OB appointment. Greg was all over making sure that she was getting enough sleep that she was eating the right foods, he was pretty excited about this entire baby deal.

"Come on Anna, we're going to be late, we can't be late for this." Pratt called from the other room.

"Damn it!" She called out, "I was up working all night, and I want another hour of sleep." She pulled the covers up over her head. Getting out of bed right now was not high on Anna's list of priorities, while it should have been the pull of sleep had bumped itself up the list a few notches on its own.

"Don't make me come in there Anna." Greg called from the other room.

Oh my god, he sounded like her mother with that one. Who did he think he was to be telling him not to make him come in there? Uh oh she knew the feeling that was starting to set in. Hormonal swing time and everyone around had better watch out because Anna usually didn't leave survivors behind when she went on one, either that or there was a trail of crying people in her wake.

"Dumb son of…." She grumbled, "Knock me up, then kick me out of bed when I'm tired, this isn't easy." She was muttering now as she headed for the bathroom. "I have to pee ever ten minutes, I'm hungry but when I eat I throw it back up." How easy it was to get mad at everything yet absolutely nothing at the same time.

Pratt poked his head in the room when he didn't hear anyone moving around. "Baby." He stood in the doorway a safe distance from her, he knew what she was capable of, he had watched it over the past few weeks, and he had seen residents and interns run almost in fear when they saw her coming.

And the hormone chain was yanked the other way.

Anna just glared at him, she didn't say anything, there was nothing right now that she had to say and if she opened her mouth she knew that it would not be good things that would come out of it. She was actually trying to be nice this morning, although she wasn't sure why.

Pratt was almost terrified to say anything to her. Not sure which way the scale would fly next. Someone had taken his sweet Anna and replaced her with, he wasn't quiet sure, was she medusa maybe? "How about if I let you do what you need to and then on the way over to the OB appointment we get you a nice chocolate milkshake, that's your favorite." He said softly as he slowly backed away from her.

Anna nodded, "I think I would like that." She said with an almost eerie grin on her face right now. "IF you don't mind I'd like to finish getting ready, unless," uh oh here she went, so much for being nice, "you don't think that I am capable of getting ready on my own and my great knight needs to do it for me."

All Pratt could think was that this was going to be a very long nine months if she kept this up. But he promised her he'd be there for her he just needed to make sure that his seatbelt was fastened tightly, because it was going to be a very bumpy ride.

Anna started getting ready. She pulled her hair up into a pony tail and then attempted to put her jeans on. Crap this was not good, they were too small now, and no way could her clothes be too small. She shook her head as she made every possible attempt to get those jeans on. Wiggling across the bed, laying flat on her back with her hips arched in the air, looking like some kind of circus freak, finally she gave up as she was overwhelmed by the need to cry.

Greg was very reluctant to reenter any room with a tearful Anna in it. "Baby," he said in a soft tone.

She looked up at him, "my clothes don't fit."

"Oh, sweetheart." He said looking at her afraid to say anything else. "Here baby borrow my sweats and I promise we will take you shopping and get you some new pretty clothes."

"Really." She sniffled.

Okay he wasn't sure how to answer that one, which answer would make his Anna happy, "yes baby I promise."

"Okay," she smiled again a little for him.

He left the room and then sighed a huge sigh as relief washed over him. If he lived through this it was going to be a miracle.

He managed to get them dressed and out the door finally. They were going to be a little bit late but that would be okay. She put her seatbelt on and Pratt just reached over and patted her leg and gave her a smile as he pulled out of the parking lot.

Anna's cell phone started to ring. She reached into her purse, "Dr. Del Amico," she said as she brought it up to her ear.

"I warned you that if you continued to see him it was going to be hazardous to your health Anna."

Anna found that her first instinct was to snap the phone shut. She knew that hanging up on him was probably not her best move but it was what everything inside of her told her to do.

It rang again, did she dare answer it, and chances were against it being the hospital calling her. She wasn't on call since she was working that night but she found herself flipping it open again, "Dr. Del Amico."

"That was not very nice of you to do." The voice on the other end said to her.

She knew that voice, she let out a very heavy sigh now before saying anything else, "what do you want from me." She said not in the mood to play his games right now.

"I want you." He said as if that was a matter of fact, "you are mine, you will always be mine."

"Screw you." She said rather abruptly into the phone.

"Is that an open invitation, I might have to take you up on it my dear. For you see I'm always going to be here Anna, I want my wife back and I want her now," he said into the phone, "you are going to always be mine for you see you are my most prized possession, you are my greatest joy and I will have you back in your place here soon."

"No, that was not an invitation and you are hallucinating now." She said, "It's over, it's over because I say it's over."

"No Anna love, it's only over when I say it's over." He said to her once more, "you see I am not going to stop until I get what I want."

"I'm not some damn trophy." She said, "You can rot in hell."

"I am too good to go there Anna." He said into the phone, "but you can trust me, you and lover boy will not be together for long. I'd rather not have to take it that far, but if you make me I will. It wouldn't be too hard to get a pine box; I could make it look like a very tragic and most unfortunate accident my dear. Which I'm sure my dear you wouldn't want to happen, but you always were a cold one when you wanted to be. Perhaps you both will fit side by side in one comfortably; I know the perfect spot where no one would find you until it was much too late."

She dropped the phone on that one and started to instantly cry. Pratt watched Anna drop the phone into her lap and he reached over one hand on the wheel as he picked it up from her. "Who is this?" He asked wondering who had made his girlfriend, the mother of his child so upset.

"I am Anna's husband." Max said into the phone. A very simple response, he really didn't want to talk to this man, but he sensed that it was a prime opportunity to cause some trouble for his pet that had flown so far from home.

"You can't be she doesn't have one." He said looking over at Anna who was still in tears.

"Oh yes she does there lover boy and that man is me." Max said his voice cold, "I want my wife back and I want her back now."

Pratt couldn't believe the nerve of this guy, upsetting her like that, "look mister, I don't know who you are or what you are up to, but I want you to leave my girl alone."

"I'm only going to tell you this once," Max said icily now, "she's my wife and I want her back, if you value your life and hers you will make sure that's what she does. I am not playing games. You have something that is mine and I want it back."

Pratt hung up the phone when he heard the line go dead. Anna was still crying in the car next to him, "You have some explaining to do Anna." He said to her keeping his eyes on the road now, "what was that all about? Never once have you mentioned to me that you were married, you are having my baby and you have a husband."

Anna was still sobbing. She couldn't stop crying, for the first time she was actually terrified of the man who once claimed to love her. She didn't know if he was making idle threats or if he might actually be serious about them. She didn't look up or even or at Pratt right now she couldn't do it, not matter how much she wanted to she just couldn't do it, "but… but… he's not my husband." She said.

"He was pretty bent on the fact that he was Anna." He said rather cold now with his tone.

"But he's not." Anna protested, "He's my ex-husband, my ex-husband, I have no husband. Why won't you believe me?"

Pratt parked the car in front of the obstetrician's office, "just go to your damn appointment Anna." He said. "I'll take you home afterwards." He didn't want to deal with this right now; she had other things that she needed to do. Maybe he was avoiding have a conversation with her while he was upset; he had every right to be upset with her.

She sat there for a minute not sure if she should go or not. He had been looking forward to going with her since she had made that appointment two weeks ago.

"Go now Anna." He reached across her and opened the door.

"You're not coming?" Her voice was so quiet it barely carried past her lips.

"No I'm not," He didn't mean to be so cold with her but he couldn't believe that she wouldn't mention something like this to him. He had gotten another man's wife pregnant.

Her heart broke again. She had her eyes closed forcing back the tears, the pain, "I see." She said as she moved to get out of the car. "I thought that this time it was different. That when you said you loved me that it wasn't empty, but I guess all men are the same. I am not that man's wife nor will I ever be his wife, ever again. He chose the blonde, he chose to screw someone else, I didn't." she said as she got out of the car, "I never asked to be hurt like that and I never asked to be hurt like this again! So you go ahead and you take his word over mine, take the side of someone you don't know over mine, but I will not let you hurt me." She slammed the car door shut behind her.

Anna turned and headed for the building she got almost to the doors and then just couldn't do it, she couldn't go in there right now. Even though she knew that it was probably best for the baby a few more days wouldn't hurt, she could put this off a little longer, after all she was a doctor herself and she knew that there was nothing wrong with the pregnancy itself. She flipped open her cell phone and called the office even thought she was just a few feet away from it, she needed to think about this. She cancelled the appointment right there and then and told them that she would call them back in a few days to reschedule that she just wasn't feel well today and couldn't make it.

She walked over and sat down by the fountain that was there. She wasn't dressed up and looked like she had been drug through hell right now. Sitting there in her… she almost said boyfriend but he wasn't that. She just wanted to curl up someplace and die. Her hands rested on her small stomach; there still wasn't much proof that there was an actual baby in there. She just sat there, focused on the waterfall. She didn't know what to do anymore. Crying wasn't going to accomplish anything even though that's what Anna wanted to do. She knew that she was probably better off on her own, she had always been independent and strong willed and she had a good job, she'd be okay. Anna would find a way to land on her feet.

Pratt had watched her walk up to the door but not go inside. He sat there bewilder about her actions, and what she had said to him when she had gotten out of the car. He turned the engine off and walked over to where she was sitting. He didn't want to be upset with her but hiding something like this wasn't something that she should have done.

Anna didn't even realize anyone was there, too lost in her own thoughts right now. She was trying to think of what she would do, this wasn't what she wanted from life. She didn't want to feel like this, why was he trying to sabotage her life like that. What had she done that she didn't deserve happiness?

"Anna?"

The voice snapped her from her thought as she looked over to see who was talking to her. She was shocked when she saw Greg was the one sitting next to her. "Yes," she answered him even if it was just to acknowledge that she knew he was there.

"Why didn't you go in?"

That seemed to be the lingering question, why hadn't she gone up to see the doctor to make sure that her son or daughter was there and healthy. What would have it hurt to have gone up to her appointment? She would have had to have gone up there alone, that's why she didn't go. But he wouldn't care about that answer. He wouldn't care period. She already knew that from the way that he was acting in the car.

He was concerned when she didn't answer him and seemed to go into her own little world of thoughts. Had this man done more damage to her than she had let on other than to just break her heart? Had he done something that had hurt her more than she could say? Pratt didn't know what to say to her, especially with the way that he was feeling right then. He had the feeling that if they were going to talk it was going to have to be the one to start the conversation, for she just didn't seem to be there with him at that moment in time. "Anna honey you have to talk to me." He finally said breaking the silence that was between them.

"Don't honey me." She said getting defensive with him even though she really didn't mean to be that way. She just didn't know what to think of all of this. Was she scared, yes she definitely was scared. What he had said to her scared her this time, last time she blew it off but when he had said that to her before Anna was pregnant, she didn't know she was going to be a mother and that changed everything.

"Please don't be like that." He said to her.

"Don't be like what? Upset?"

"Anna you know what I mean." He said again, his tone and demeanor had completely changed with her again. "We can't ignore this anymore we have to talk about it."

"What is talking about it going to change?" She said, "You have already made up your mind with out listening to me."

"Why didn't you just tell me?" He asked her.

"Tell you what? That I am divorced, that my husband broke my heart by sleeping around on me, that I came home from work one night to find another woman in my bed, that I caught him red handed screwing her, so I left him and came to Chicago. That I gave up everything that I had because it hurt to bad to stay there, and now I find out he is here, and he's threatening to ruin my life in Chicago as well. Is that what you want me to tell you what you think you need to hear from me?"

"That's a start Anna." He said reaching over and taking her hand into his, a simple gesture really but one that he hoped had meaning. "I wish I could say that this didn't impact the way that I felt but…."

"Don't please," she said standing up, pulling her hand from his, "spare me the platitudes about how this isn't the kind of relationship you wanted that you're sorry that you just can't deal with it."

From the way she was talking, from what she was saying he could tell that she had been hurt on more than just a single level. But how did he know what she was telling him now was real, but if he loved her, he did, or he thought that he did how could he let this come between them. Why was he taking the side of a stranger on the phone over her?

"It took everything I had to believe you." She said moving now more backing away from him than anything else now, "I wanted nothing more than to believe you when you told me not to worry because no matter what happened you had come to love me. Well once again where has love gotten me?" She was cynical but thought that she had every right to be.

"Anna I do love you." He said standing up walking closer to her, "I do and that's why I am still here aren't I?"

She didn't say anything this time to him. She had no idea what to say right now and even if silence was the killer of relationships so be it for in her eyes this one had already sank. She didn't know if he meant what he said or if he was just saying it now because he was concerned that she might do something horrible to his child. Anna wasn't in control of where her own thoughts were going right now, everything seemed to spin just a little more out of her control. How could he think that, my god she was a pediatrician, she loved children. She would never harm a child, let alone her own. Then she said it, granted it might not have been the best thing to say but in her eyes it was the truth, "you're only here because of the baby."

"That's not true Anna. I'm here because I love you and I want to be so let's just go home please." He said holding out his hand to her. "Baby let's just get you home and into bed. We can order in some dinner and I will make you something warm to drink and you can get some more sleep. I know you are tired."

"I don't know."

Pratt didn't give her a chance to say anything else; in one foul swoop he had scooped her up and was carrying her back to the car. He could tell that she was emotionally and physically exhausted right now and that it wasn't good for either of them, her or the baby. He didn't want any harm to come to either one of them right now. And while he might not have admitted it to Anna, that man on the phone whoever he might have been had scared him, not by threatening him, but by threatening Anna, for in threatening her, he had threatened their baby.

He had gotten her home, tucked safely in bed and he sat there until he knew for sure that she was asleep. He didn't know what to do about the problem that they had. It was obvious that the man had been watching them. That he knew what they had been doing, he seemed to take pleasure in all of this. Pratt had to wonder now if he wasn't somehow mentally unstable, if after Anna had left him, that he hadn't had some sort of psychotic break.

Pratt went to move from her side when Anna curled up even more around him, but the way that she was laying scared him, for it showed just how vulnerable and scared she was. She had when he moved, moved herself so that she was almost nothing more than a little ball wrapped around him. Her knees were up close to her chest as if she was protecting something, he knew what, she was trying in her sleep even now as she dreamt, to protect her baby, their baby.

While the baby might not have been planned, he could still tell that it was wanted and loved by both its parents, although he hated referring to the baby as it, for that's not what it was, that was a baby in there be it boy or girl, that was there child. He looked down at her and reached over to push her hair that had fallen back away from her face. He was worried from the look on her face about her. Would Anna ever feel safe with him? She must somewhat because when he touched her, he could see her relax a little more in her sleep.

As he laid there with her he found his mind wandering, how could anyone do anything to a woman so kind, so gentle, and so full of life and willing to give all of herself to what ever she was undertaking? What psychological damage had that man inflicted up on her to move her into a world where she couldn't' trust anyone? Could he undo it, give her that sense of security; bring her from her world and into his?


	10. Life is Grand

**Chapter 10: Life is Grand**

Time had flown by for Anna, she had gone with Pratt to that OB appointment and much to their amazement saw that little baby in there, it might not have resembled much of a baby, but they new that in less than 8 months their baby would be in the world with them. The baby would arrive in early March.

There had been no more phones call, but Anna hadn't let down her guard any, more protective now than ever as the realization that she was going to be a mother set in fully upon seeing the baby in the ultrasound.

She was laying on the bed now before getting ready to go into work. She looked down her stomach was now starting to protrude some but then she had expected that to start soon after all she was fourteen weeks pregnant now. But if someone who didn't know her saw her they would just think that she had put on a little weight. They still hadn't told anyone at County about them expecting, mostly because Anna wanted to wait to say anything until she got through the first three months.

Well she had now and they wouldn't be able to deny it much longer, especially if this little one decided to go on a growth spurt. She rubbed the little bump that was there, smiling happy and content once more as her emotionally hormonal rollercoaster had finally slowed down and she was starting to return to her "normal" personality.

"You about ready to go?" Pratt asked as he walked from the bathroom into their bedroom with nothing more than a towel wrapped around him.

Anna looked at him now with a sly grin on her face, "hmm, yeah more so than you are." She said giving him that come over her baby look.

"Oh no down there momma." He said smiling back at her; he knew that smile after spending the last three months getting to know her on so many different levels. The last 14 weeks had been an emotional rollercoaster for them but one that he had been happy to be on. He was looking forward to being a father.

Anna just laughed; things had been to be going well between the two of them again. She moved now to get up off the bed. She kept the smile on her face as she finished getting dressed to go into work with him. She had gone out a few days ago and gotten herself some new clothes, she still needed to baby shop but that could still wait another month or two after all she had around six months until the baby was technically due.

"What are you thinking about?" Pratt asked wrapping his arms around her and gently lifting her up off the floor.

"How we are going to be late if we don't get a move on it." She said with a smile, "I mean Susan and everyone have been pretty relaxed about us being five or ten minutes late, but really we should try to get there on time once in a while."

"Party pooper." Pratt said setting her gently back down onto the ground. "No where is the fun in that?"

"Oh I think that we need to start being responsible adults." She replied back with a sly grin. "After all we are going to be parents in March."

He fell back on the bed, "oh no, woman just suck all the life that's left in me out."

Anna shook her head, "if you don't get off that bed," she smiled knowing how to get him moving, "I am going to be joining you in it and then we will really be late and everyone will know why from the smile that is on your face."

He sat up and lunged at her a little, to which Anna playfully jumped back just out of his reach, "no, no you don't."

Anna looked at him, "oh yes I do." She playfully shook her finger at him now. Sometimes they were worse than two small children bickering but it was all fun for right now between them. "Did you bring in the mail?" She asked as she headed from the bedroom into the other room.

"No didn't get to it yet." He called back, "we can grab it on the way out."

"Yeah, yeah," came her reply as she gathered up her things for work. "You said that yesterday and still managed to forget again."

"I mean it this time." Pratt said emerging from the bedroom as he buttoned up his shirt. "My god woman did we get married or something you are starting to nag as if you are my wife." As he passed by her to get his keys and coat he stopped and smiled at her. "Here I got this for you." He said picking up a small box from the counter.

"You got me what?" She said looking at him.

"Well if I was just going to tell you why would I have gone to all the trouble of putting it in a box?"

"Yeah okay," she said, "you've got me there." She pulled the lid off the box and was looking at keys, "what are these too?"

"This one," he said reaching around her from behind now "is to our apartment, this one is to the mailbox, and this one is for the car."

"You gave me a key to your car?" She said looking at him with a puzzled look. "But that's your car, and this is your apartment."

"Well yes and no." He said kissing the back of her neck softly, "see the way I look at this is this, you are going to need wheels when baby gets here, and this way I don't have to worry about you. And baby this is where we live now, not just me, but you, me and baby to be."

She turned and smiled at him, "thanks." Her eyes locked with his for a brief moment, "okay, okay we've got to go."

They grabbed their stuff and headed out, she knew they would be late again but tried not to dwell on it. After all it was a sweet gesture that made them late. She wasn't sure how they were going to tell everyone about the baby but she knew that they would have to do it here pretty soon. She had grabbed the mail as they passed by the box; she'd look through it on the way to County.

Once they were in the car and on their way, it was Pratt who broke the silence, "so what do you say tonight if there's some slow down time…"

"Ah baby you just jinxed it, now we are going to get slammed you wait and see." Anna said looking over at him with a smile.

"Okay, well just under the assumption now that I haven't done that and we get some down time anyway, or we make some time, you and I sneak a peak at junior in there see if that baby of ours will tell us if we're having a boy or a girl?"

"Oh, no you don't," Anna said with a serious look on her face, "we are not finding out ahead of time what the baby is."

"What you seriously don't want to know?" He said as he concentrated on traffic while talking to her.

"No I don't want to know and you won't know either." She said putting her hand on his leg as he drove, "there are very few real surprises in life and this is one of them."

"But how do we decide on a name?" He asked her.

"Well it's this simple, we pick a boys name and we pick a girls name and then when baby arrives, we'll know which one to use." Anna replied rather matter of fact like. She already had an idea of the sex of the baby was, she just didn't want to have it confirmed.

"You seem to have the answer for everything there don't ya babe." He said patting her leg now.

"I try my best sweetheart." She said grinning at him, "but you are not going to find out what the baby is."

"Guess I'll just have to work a little harder to get you to bend on that one." He said with a sly smile, "I mean how are we supposed to by baby clothes and all that jazz too before baby gets here?"

"You're not going to give up are you?"

"Nope."

"Gregory Pratt." Anna said now looking over at him, "you might as well give this one a rest because I am not going to be swayed to change my mind."

He pulled the car into the parking lot and turned the engine off before leaning over and whispering something into Anna's ear which caused her to turn a slight shade of red, "okay well that might get me to change it."

"I thought it might." He got out of the car and waited for her before taking Anna's hand as they headed inside. Life was good right now and he wouldn't change it for the world. He had a wonderful woman by his side, they were expecting a baby, and everything was grand.

"You know you distracted me so that I didn't get to go through the mail." Anna said as she darted in the ER doors headed for the lounge.

"So, it's probably nothing but bills and they can wait until later." He said as he got into his locker and pulled on his lab coat.

"Doesn't mean that I really wanted to ignore them." She said as she sat it on the shelf in her locker before putting her arms into her lab coat.

"It can wait a few hours." He responded back to her as he finished getting ready to go out and heal the masses that would be flooding into the ER.

Anna smiled back over at him, "yeah I know it can. I'm off to be your boss now." She smiling going from cute to more of an evil grin.

"Rub it in would you, but you know that just shows how much older than me you really are." He smirked at her.

"Oh you had better watch it." She said looking back over her shoulder as she closed her locker door now. "Remember I can make you night miserable for that one."

"Yeah I know you could, but you wouldn't do that because you like me that much."

"Watch the cockiness there my dear." Anna said as she headed for the lounge door now, "People know we are dating and if you suddenly ended up with all these horrible cases, they would instantly know that there is trouble in paradise for you."

He leaned over and placed a small kiss on her cheek, "I love you too Anna dear." He would let her go out first, he wanted a cup of coffee to jump start his night.

She laughed softly now as she headed off to work, there was nothing tonight that could pull her from her good mood tonight and the last few months a good mood for Anna was a rarity. "You are just lucky I am in a good mood tonight." She called back over her shoulder as she continued her way to the admit desk.

"Lucky for Chicago and the residents of County." Pratt said softly so that she wouldn't overhear that one. That good mood was a rarity in his eyes and he didn't want to do anything to pull her from it, tonight might just be a good night for the two of them.


	11. Hunger Pains

**Chapter 11: Hunger Pains**

Max had been patiently biding his time, which was hard for him to do. But he didn't want to act irrationally and have everything blow up in his face when he went to make his move. He had been watching her now since June, almost four months now had gone by since had started his never ending vigil.

At first his plan had been hazy, hastily thrown together, but as the time passed and he managed to find some form of self control it grew and took on a life of its own. He obsessed about her; she was his one ideal love. Max knew that getting her back would be his ultimate achievement the one that no one could deny that he did. Anna knew that she was his, and once again she would unconditionally respect him, to do what he asked of her with out question. He was entitled to her of that he had no doubt. With out him she was nothing, and would continue to be nothing.

He was jealous of the man that she was with and there was no doubt of that. Someone else with his possession. That was not to be tolerated in any shape or form. He was now sitting outside the ER where she worked; this was not the place where she would be working if she had stayed with him, no this place was not good enough for them, and why she chose to return here was beyond his comprehension.

He watched as they walked hand in hand smiling and laughing into to ER. That sight made him want to vomit. He turned now to his thought double checking to make sure that everything was just the way it needed to be tonight.

"Good evening Dr. Carter, what do you have for me tonight?" Anna asked looking over the board, "see that the day shift has been slacking for we have a full board tonight."

"Ha, ha," Carter said back to her as he started to go over the patients that he was handing over to her for the night. "Don't work to hard there Anna. I will see you all in the morning."

Anna looked over the charts and started in on the backlog of work that needed to be done. It wasn't that bad, it was just that they were tonight definitely busy. She had been working for awhile when she glanced up at the clock, it was one in the morning now, no wonders her stomach was starting to growl at her. She was halfway thru her shift and it was telling her that she needed to stop and eat.

She finished up what she was doing and then looked up at the board; it wasn't anything that couldn't be handled if she walked across the street for something to eat. She had forgotten to pack anything to eat tonight and was now regretting it.

She walked into the lounge getting her bottle of water that she had in the fridge so that it was cold. She wasn't sure if she just wanted to grab something from the jumbo mart or go into Ike's and get a burger. She was really hungry right now and if she had her choice she would eat an entire horse right now.

Anna tucked some money into her lab coat having made up her mind what she wanted to do and headed back out to the admit desk, to wait for Greg to come back so that she could let him know what she was going to do. Her tummy was rumbling demanding that she put food into it now. She would just run over to the jumbo mart and get something quick to satisfy her grumbling stomach.

"Hey baby," She said as Pratt made his way back to the admit desk chart in his hand writing as he walked.

He looked up at her, "what you need?"

"I'm running across the street, do you want anything?" Anna said checking to make sure that she had money in her lab coat pocket.

"I really don't think you should be going alone this late at night Anna." He said with a look being worried on his face.

"I'm going to jumbo mart, its right across the street, what could happen?" She asked looking at him, her stomach growling even louder.

"You don't want me to answer that." He said looking at her, "it's hot and tempers are short in the city right now. I would feel better if you didn't go alone."

She put her hands on her hips and just gave him this look, "Greg," Anna said, "please come on I don't want to wait for someone to go over there with me. I'm hungry now."

"Didn't you bring anything?" He said looking at her now still with that same concerned look on his face. "I really don't want you running even across the street at one in the morning Anna."

"No I didn't have time to pack anything tonight." She said "please honey come on I am starving."

"Have someone deliver a pizza." He replied now writing in the chart again.

"I don't want to wait a half hour for food the mart is right across the damn street and I am hungry." Speaking of hot and tempers flying Anna's temper was about to fly.

"Give me ten minutes and I can go with you." He said desperately trying to come to a compromise with his pregnant girlfriend.

"You're the senior resident on tonight we both can't go." Anna said looking at him, she felt like she was battling in circles but if he didn't want her to go, he had to have had a reason.

Pratt sighed heavily now. "Then take a med student with you." He said, "Surely you can take one of them along. It won't kill you to take someone with you if you are that hungry Anna."

"Fine I will take a med student with me, as long as that will make you happy and I can go get something to eat!" She was losing her patients with her very stubborn boyfriend.

"Anna I'm just worried about you." He said looking up to grab another of his charts from the rack.

"I'm just going across the street to the jumbo mart, relax there would you it's not like anything is going to happen, I think you have more to fear if I don't get something to eat than if you don't let me go." She was getting mad.

"Don't be gone long and let me know when the two of you get back. I'm not saying that you can't go I am saying that you should take someone with you. Good god woman you make it sound like the world is going to end if you don't get something to eat. I'll try not to be so worried about you all the time. Jane, go with Dr. Del Amico would you. Make sure she doesn't load up on junk food either."

"I'll eat what I want when I want." Anna smarted back to him.

"And it will show too." Pratt said with a smile pointing at her, "Get something that's good for you."

"Yes Dr. Pratt." Anna said looking at him, with a very sarcastic tone in her voice. She didn't want to be mean or evil but my god she was hungry and she just wanted to get something to eat with out him being so paranoid "come on Jane, I'm dying here I need to eat."

Jane just looked at the two doctors like they were nuts. "Okay." She said "didn't know that this fell into med student duties."

"Well Dr. Pratt doesn't think that I should be going across the street late at night by myself and since I'm hungry and you are the one standing here, you have been nominated by default to go."

"Oh lucky me." She said as they started out of the ER and across the street.

It didn't take Anna long to find what she wanted to eat and get it so that they could be heading back before he had a heart attack because they were gone to long. As they were almost back inside the bay she heard that voice that sent chills up her spine.

"I've been waiting for you." The voice talking to Anna was as cold as ice; there was a difference in it than one that she would have been more familiar with.

Anna didn't slow her pace, and she didn't let Jane slow down either, "keep walking." She said in hushed tones. She knew who it belonged to and she knew that she couldn't afford to let him get her alone. She didn't' trust him, not after everything that he had said to her on the phone.

"Anna, I've been waiting."

She heard the voice speaking to her again. She thought that maybe if she didn't answer him then he would go away. But out of nowhere, there was an arm on hers. She tried so desperately not to freeze from the panic that was inside her now, feeling his arm on hers she did panic, the hairs on her arm standing on end, repulsed by the thought of him touching her in any way. "Jane, go get Dr. Pratt now."

"Lover boy, Anna, he can't help you."

"Let go." She said trying to pull her arm away from him and keep moving but he had a hold of it tightly and when she went to pull away he tightened his grip causing her to cry out in pain. In all the time that they had been together, she had never once feared him, she had never seen him hurt anyone, but the tone of his voice, the pain in her arm, and she knew that the man that was there with her right then wasn't the same man that she had left. Something within him had changed and for her, she felt as if she was being bounced into a nightmare. She didn't think that he would kill her, it was a different kind of fear, not knowing it he was going to take her away from everything that she wanted in Chicago, fear that he would or could do anything to her that might harm her child.

Her cries went unheeded by his cold callousness towards others, he could careless if she hurt, maybe if he hurt her bad enough she would just succumb to him and do what he wanted of her. "Come on my dear we need to talk."

"No, I can't I'm working right now." She said to him her even calm voice was now shaky. She was trying not to show how desperate she was to get away from him, how scared she might have really been. Anna had grown up in a tough neighborhood in South Philadelphia, but yet in all in years she had never had to deal with anything like this.

"They can survive with out you for a few minutes Anna love." He said back to her. His voice was icy and she could feel the seriousness in it, that and the hold that he had on her arm was enough to bring her almost to her knees.

"Really, I have to get back inside," She said softer now, "I'm the only attending on." She was getting this feeling that he wasn't about to give up, but she didn't want to go without a fight. It was the one time that she wished that there was more traffic in the bay, that there were more people, if she caused a scene then he might just leave thinking that it wasn't worth it, but the only person out there at this time of the morning was the med student that Greg had insisted go with her and right now Anna was very thankful that he had sent her with her.

Jane hadn't moved from the feet few away from Anna that she had been, unsure of whether she should go and get Dr. Pratt or if Anna would be able to pull away from him. She didn't want to leave her alone because she didn't trust the man who was holding onto Anna, there was something about the way that he looked that sent shivers up even her spine. But the more she witnessed the more it seemed that Anna wasn't going to be able to move away from him. Jane could tell that Anna was being hurt by the hold that he had on her arm.

"Now, you just need to be a good girl and come with me. I'm not going to hurt you love." He said to her.

"I can't." Anna said once more trying to pull away from him until the pain shot through her arm where he was holding onto her.

"No, that's not being a good woman," he said, his voice held the same cold tone to it that it had the entire time he was talking to Anna, "you will come with me and there's no argument about it Anna."

Jane now sensed that Anna was in serious trouble and she turned and ran for the ER. She knew she needed to find Pratt but also to get security out there. She stopped at the first security officer she found, "there's a man in the ambulance bay attempting to abduct a doctor." She said pulling them towards the door. "You have to help her." Jane's tone was almost frantic as she saw him, "Dr. Pratt." She yelled out. "Dr. Del Amico, you need to come now!"

When Pratt heard that he dropped everything running for the door, for he had a sinking feeling what was happening. His worst fear was coming true that the threats on the phone that day so long ago were about to come true.


	12. Unwelcomed Advances

**Chapter 12: Unwelcome advances**

Anna's worst fears were coming true as he started to drag her from the ambulance bay. She couldn't let him take her from the safety there. She just hoped that when Jane had run off that she would get to them, to get to her in time. Max pulled her hard and her body just couldn't hold its ground as she was roughly yanked along onto the street. He pulled her down along into a dark alley way that was just to the one side of the ER, next to a run down old building. She fought against him trying to pull back the way that they had come but her attempts were met with even more force.

He pulled her in close to him, she could feel his hot breath against the skin of her neck now, "be quiet and be good, Anna I don't want to hurt you baby." He said to her in a soft yet very menacing voice.

Anna's entire body shook now from fear. He had pulled her into a door way holding her tightly against the wall his arm under her chin pushing dangerously against her throat. Her brain was telling her to fight, to try to get away but the fear inside of her was telling her that it might just be better if she cooperated, waited to find a better time to get away from him.

"Scream and I will end your life, right here right now; they will find nothing but your dead lifeless body." He hissed at her now.

Fear took a hold of her now as she was silent, shaking, scared to death. "What… what do you want from me Max?" Her voice no more than a small whisper.

"You," he said as he ran his hand down along the side of her face, "I want you."

She shook her head, "no, you can't have me." She had to find some bravery somewhere. Was it bravery that she had found or more of sheer stupidity, that wasn't going to sit well with her, but she had to try something, anything to let him know that he couldn't do this to her.

"Stupid woman." He said going from being gentle with her to backhanding her across the face.

Anna felt the searing pain when his hand connected and her head snapped back hitting the concrete wall. Tears formed in her eyes and started down her redden cheek.

"Tears will not help you." He said in that icy tone again. Max started to kiss on her neck then down across her collarbone to the other side. "You're mine Anna," he whispered into her ear now, "it's my right to have you, I am entitled to my wife."

She could hear the others now calling for her and she knew that they would be looking for them. But she couldn't' call out to them, no matter how badly she wanted to. She was afraid of him, afraid of what he might do if she did, unsure if they would be able to get to her before he could do something, and it was that something that he might do that she was indeed afraid of.

She felt his hand work its way upside her shirt under her lap coat. "Don't fight me Anna," He whispered from his onslaught on unwelcome kisses. "It will be much easier on you if you don't."

"Don't' do this please," Anna was begging now, "please just let me go. You don't want to do this, I know that you don't."

"Oh now, now my feisty little one," he said holding onto her tightly. Anna couldn't feel the ground beneath her feet anymore he had lifted her up holding her by the throat. She couldn't get any air, she was gasping now. "It will all be over soon I promise you that. And then you can come back to our perfect life in Philadelphia, to that job that holds more promise, more prestige than this run down dump you feel compelled to work in."

She could feel her body slam against the wall, the searing pain causing her to momentarily black out. She went numb trying to protect herself from what was happening to her, this wasn't happening to her, why was he doing this? Anna pulled herself further inside, withdrawing from the events that were happening on the outside of her. She could feel her body shutting down, her mind slowing down taking her someplace other than where she was. She couldn't hear anything, nor feel anything anymore and it was a momentary reprieve.

Finally she felt her feet again on the ground as he dropped her battered body. She collapsed trying to curl up in a ball to get away from it. Maybe now that he had what he wanted he would just leave her alone? He had other plans. He grabbed her by the hair pulling her up to her feet, "get up and walk."

It took every ounce of strength she had not to be drug along the ground as he pulled her. What more could he want, he had just take the last of what she had, stripped her of any self worth, any dignity she might have had with just that one act. She could barely see out of her left eye that had swollen shut from where he had hit her and the world was still fuzzy from her hitting her head against the wall. She could make things out but they definitely were far from clear. She knew that she had probably suffered a concussion from hitting the wall.

"Pregnant, how could you?" He almost yelled at her as he yanked her up to her feet, "my precious Anna. My beautiful Anna, you ruined it, we had something so perfect and you threw it all away my love." He ran his hand down the side of her face now as if it was meant to be some symbol of love, some kind gesture. "Did you think that I wouldn't notice that?"

When she didn't answer him right away he pulled her hair again so that she was forced to look at him through her now swollen eyes, "answer me, silence will get you nothing, did you think I wouldn't notice?"

Before Anna could do anything she felt his hand hit her face again. She could barely keep herself on her feet now as she nodded, that was all she could do everything hurt to bad right now to do anything else. There was no way that she would actually be able to get words out. She was fighting to hard to suck back the tears, he said that they would do her no good and she was bound and determined not to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he had made her cry once again.

"Damn it Anna you had to go and do that." He said as he practically slammed her to the ground again. "This ends. I warned you it would, and now I have to end it."

She didn't know what he meant by that was he going to kill her? Was he going to kill Greg? Anna had never felt such fear in her life. Never did she think that she would ever suffer like this at the hands of someone who once claimed to love her. He was going to take everything that she dreamed of away from her. Maybe that's what he wanted; this was some sick twisted revenge that she was stuck in. She saw him pull out the gun; she couldn't mistake that grey flash.

She felt him once again pull her to her feet. Once again she was being half dragged this time the surroundings became clearer, more familiar, the voices that she heard were even more familiar. They were almost back in the bay.

"Looking for this?" She heard him shout as he held her firmly in front of him. Max knew that he only had once chance now and she was going to give him that chance. His whispered into her ear one last time, "you were perfect my love, as always perfect, we shall meet in heaven or hell again very soon."

She watched as those in the bay turned around hearing his voice, the commotion ceased as all eyes now focused on him. She could barely make out Greg standing talking to a police officer now near the bay doors. She saw him go to run forward but the police man held him back as she then felt the cold steel pushed into the side of her head. Max seemed to know that they wouldn't shoot if they couldn't get a clear shot and with her directly in front of him there was no way that they could.

They stood there for what felt like an eternity no one dared to make a move. There was an eerie silence that took a hold of them all. And the only sound that could be heard seemed to be the sound of her tears falling. The cops were waiting for him to make his move and it was almost as if Max was savoring the attention that he was getting from all of this.

"Now, my love, don't be scared, it won't hurt for long." Max said kissing her once more. "Soon all the pain in this world will be gone and you will feel nothing but joy from here on out." He released his grip on her some, "now you go on and be a good little woman and run back to your lover." The tone in his voice was so icy that she was almost afraid to move. "Now go." He said pushing her making her go.

Anna found the strength some how to make her body move turning she scrambled half running half crawling towards the lights of the ER. She was no more than a few feet from him when it happened; she could hear it happening all around her, the shots ringing out in breaking the silence of the Chicago pre-dawn. She heard people scream and the shots echoed through her mind and then all was still.


	13. Promised End

**Chapter 13: Promised End**

The ground came flying up at her now, the pain didn't end like he said it would in fact it only increased. As she hit the ground Anna curled up in a little ball. She could hear Pratt screaming for her now. Oh god, everything from her head to her toes hurt, but most of all right now there was a horrible pain radiating from her shoulder. She brought one hand up to touch it and then as she focused on her hand she could see the bright red blood covering her fingers.

As she laid there on the ground she could feel her body start to go into shock from everything that had happened. Her body started to shake violently and she couldn't make it stop, she was sick to her stomach and had to roll onto her side and everything that was in it came up. Then she felt hands on her again, no please don't touch me. She wanted to cry out but couldn't cause she was vomiting so hard that she was gagging from it. She shuddered again, wanting to pull away from the hands that had a hold of her, they were hurting her.

"Don't please, god don't please." She managed to get out in a weak voice.

"It's going to be okay Anna." She heard, "we've got you, you're safe with us now."

She didn't feel safe though, far from it, she didn't know where he was, all she knew was that he had been behind her, now her vision was so cloudy that she could make out that there were people standing there but she had no idea who they were.

"He knows, he knows," Anna cried over and over again, unable to be comforted by those around her, she had no idea who those around her were, she couldn't trust anyone right now. She didn't want to trust anyone. He had tried to kill her.

The baby, oh no the baby. She went into a completely different mode of panic now as the realization set in that this might have hurt her baby. "Help my baby." She cried out, "please don't let my baby die." That was the only thing on her mind right now. Her focus shifted from her own pain to the fear that something might happen to the baby.

"Lay still Anna." A voice commanded her.

"No, no don't touch me." She screamed and tried to get away from the voice. She didn't like that voice right now was it him again. Her mind was clouded and she couldn't' tell all she knew was that the voice was male and that he was once again telling what to do.

"Anna, we're going to help you."

That voice was different much more calm; there was a different sound to it, female perhaps she still couldn't tell for sure.

"Do you know where you are Anna?"

Anna nodded, "yeah," she whispered out, the fear in her voice was evident, "the ambulance bay at County."

"That's good." The voice told her. "We are going to take you inside if you will let us, can we take you inside Anna?"

Anna nodded again, there was something about the person who was talking to her right now that put her a little more at ease, didn't overwhelm her as much as the others.

"Okay gently now don't jar her." The voice says, "Anna we're going to lift you up and put you on a gurney, it might hurt a little and you are going to feel several people touching you but I'm right here and I won't let them hurt you."

Anna nods again that's about all she can bring herself to do right now. She's in a state of mental confusion now, not that she wants to be but her head hurts so badly from hitting the wall and there's still that searing pain radiating from her shoulder that is clouding her mind. She can feel herself being lifted up and then ever so gently she feels something under her that's not the hard ground. She wasn't nearly as cold now either. They had laid something on her, a blanket perhaps; yes they had put a blanket over her to keep her from being so cold.

"Anna, do you know who I am?" The voice in the night asks her again.

"No," Anna answered honestly, "I can't see you." She said she was still scared, "everything is blurry. My head hurts."

"Don't close you eyes Anna," the same voice keeps talking to her now, "I need you to stay with me. We're going to trauma one now."

Anna could sense the urgency in the woman's voice, "who, who are you?" She said as she fought to keep her eyes from closing, they wanted to so badly right now.

"Anna, its Susan, sweetie, we're moving you inside and we are going to take good care of you right now."

She felt them start to move her. "Oh, oh, okay." Anna finally managed to get out she was so tired right now everything hurt and she just wanted to go to sleep. "W... w… where's Greg?" She knew if she didn't at least let him be there by her side that he would know that something horrible had happened to her, and she just didn't want anyone to know that Max had done that to her. She hurt, she was embarrassed and she didn't want anyone, not a soul to know what had happened in last few minutes, or hours, however long that she had been forced to be with him.

Pratt heard his name come from her and he rushed over to her side, having stayed away when she had flipped out when he touched her. He knew that she had to have been traumatized and from the way she looked right now it wasn't good. "Oh baby I'm right here." He said looking at Susan before he touched her and when Susan nodded giving him the okay, he took her hand into his, "I've got your hand baby and I won't leave you."

"I… I…" She was starting to cry again. Susan saw the tear roll down Anna's bruised face. Maybe having him that close to her right now wasn't such a good idea as they rolled into the hospital.

"It's okay baby." He said stroking her head now very gently, "that's just me baby." He said letting her know who was touching her.

"I'm sorry, I'm very sorry." She said in a voice no bigger once again than a whisper. She was fighting to stay awake now, her body tired and about to give out on her after the entire ordeal.

"Oh baby it wasn't your fault." He said softly holding on her hand as they pushed her into the trauma room to start the assessment of how badly she had been injured. "You need to stay with us Anna, keep talking to me baby."

Susan looked at Pratt and then Anna again, she was very pale and Susan knew that she had lost a lot of blood from the shoulder wound. But it appeared to have been clear through with the entrance in the back and exit in the front. That man had shot in her the back. "Just keep talking to her Pratt." Susan said as she started to check Anna over herself. Of all the people there Anna seemed to be the most comfortable with the two of them, Susan saw no need to change that up.

"Get the portable in here; I want head, neck and chest films." Susan said.

"No!" Anna lost her calmness and tried not to jump literally off the gurney.

"Anna, Anna its okay." Pratt was trying desperately to keep her calm again, "they won't hurt the baby I promise." He then looked at Susan, "she's pregnant."

Susan about had to do a double take hearing that one, she had heard that the two of them had been seeing each other but she hadn't taken it seriously, must have been serious, "how far along?"

"Fourteen weeks." Pratt rattled off as he looked down at Anna. He wanted her to focus on something else, something other than being scared, to try and let her know she was going to be alright now, "isn't that right baby?" He asked her hoping that if he could draw her into the conversation that she might stay awake a little easier.

"Yeah that's, that's right." She answered him.

"We are due in March, aren't we baby." He said rubbing her hand now, "March madness baby."

"Maybe." Anna said as she was starting to fall asleep.

"Baby did you hit your head at all?" Pratt asked her seeing how close she was to closing her eyes.

"I think the wall jumped out and hit it." She said softly as her eye lids were fluttering now. "Once or twice."

"Did you pass out?" He knew that he was asking her a lot of questions but they were ones that Susan would need the answer too anyway and he was keeping her focus off what Susan and the others were trying to do to help her. She had a lot of cuts and scrapes, bruises all over the place.

"I… I… I don't know, I might have," she said, "it hurt really bad, I might have blacked out."

"Okay going to feel cold now here Anna, it's just the ultrasound." Susan said to her, she wanted Anna to be as comfortable as she could be, and not to startle her when she touched her, knowing that what she had gone through had to have been a horrific experience, "we're going to take a little look here and make sure everything is okay with the little one."

Pratt looked down at her, "I'm not supposed to know am I?" His eyes shot back up to Susan holding onto the sonosite waiting for word that everything was okay. They both let out a giant sigh of relief when they heard the baby's small heart beating.

"She's okay." Anna said softly now, laying back more into the bed when she heard the baby's heart beating. She was able to relax a little more knowing that for right now her daughter was alright.

Pratt had her hand in his almost expecting the worst from the way that Anna looked, "she?"

"A mother's intuition." Anna replied back.

"Well do you want me to tell you if your mother's intuition is right or not?" Susan asked moving the transducer about Anna's small yet protruding stomach.

Pratt looked at Anna knowing that she didn't want to know but that she already had a good idea of what there child was going to be.

"Yeah Greg wanted to know." Anna replied softly, "I'm sure Isabella wouldn't mind showing daddy that's she's definitely a she."

Pratt had to just shake his head; he couldn't believe what he was hearing coming from his girlfriend right now, "Isabella, you've named her already."

"Well I couldn't keep calling her it now could I?" Anna replied laying her head down. "It was better than Mac."

"The only reason I called the baby Mac was because you kept sending me to MacDonald's." Pratt said, "It seemed rather fitting for either sex."

"Well I do like Isabella Mackenzie Del Amico." Anna said.

"Isabella Mackenzie Pratt." He corrected her.

Anna looked up at him, through half closed eyes, "whose having this baby?"

Susan looked down at Anna, she seemed to be in an okay mood considering what had happened, from the way that she was acting right now however you would have never known that she had been grabbed and beaten to a bloody pulp. Maybe this was her way of dealing with it. Focusing on the baby rather than the events of the past few hours. Yet it was that fairly good mood she was in that worried Susan.

Anna seemed rather calm around Greg right now, almost too calm as if she was hiding something from everyone. Susan knew that Anna was a doctor and had dealt with a lot of trauma's, she couldn't help but wonder now if all that training had given Anna an edge here in knowing what they would want from her, or rather expected from her.

"I can tell you that baby Isabella looks just fine." Susan said. There however was what looked like a small separation of the placenta from the uterine wall that had her worried. While there was no apparent bleeding coming from the tear, she knew that they would need to keep an eye on it and that Anna would need to take it easy for several days. After what she had gone through that would be a bad thing.

"Isabella," Pratt said looking at the screen, "We're going to have a baby girl." He smiled now his eyes focusing on the small image of a baby on the sonosite. Pratt set Anna's hand down as he moved. "Everything okay?" He said pointing to the area that Susan had been worried about.

"Yeah." Susan said knowing that Pratt had noticed the same thing that she had, "I don't think that's anything to worry about." She didn't want to upset Anna anymore if she didn't have to.

"You think what is nothing to worry about." Hearing the two of them her head was now up off the bed, even though that made the room fuzzy and it hurt something terrible for her to be sitting that way. "What's wrong?" She was trying not to panic now, "what is it?"

"There's evidence that you might have a small abruption." Susan said. "There's no apparent bleeding right now, or nothing that we can see. I don't think that it's anything that we should be alarmed at but something that we need to keep an eye on." Susan was trying to reassure her friend that while they had spotted it, it didn't mean that there was anything bad impending on the horizon. "We'll keep an eye on it, you'll have to stay on bed rest for a while, but I think that it's going to be okay."

"Are you sure?" Anna questioned them both now, "are you sure that it's okay that it's nothing?"

"Anna nothing is certain in medicine you know that." Susan said, "But it appears to have clotted off itself and I don't think it's going to cause any problems. There's more concern about your shoulder than this. They are going to take you up to surgery here in a little bit for exploratory surgery. Make sure that everything is okay, make sure there no debris in there."

Anna rested against the bed once more, "can I have some Vicodin here my shoulder, pain, you know."

"Yeah sure." Susan said as she nodded for the nurse to administer it as she wrote on Anna's chart. "We'll get you put back together here pretty quickly."

"I guess I should feel pretty lucky to have the head of the department taking care of me." For the first time since they had gotten in there Anna gave Susan something that resembled a smile.

"Yeah I don't come in on my night off for just anyone you know that. But then I don't think that Cosmo minded being left at home with daddy either." Susan said looking down at her now.

There were small tears in Anna's eyes; you could tell that she was trying to hide something. As if there was more than what than what met the eye. If you were to look at her it just looked as if he had beaten her. She had a swollen eye and several bruises on her face. She had a small laceration on the back of her head, but Anna said that she had been slammed into a wall. Pratt had been beside her since they had come into the trauma room was there something else that had happened that Anna didn't want to say anything about and that's why she was now keeping him close.

"We'll give the Vicodin a minute to kick in and then get you the rest of the way into a gown okay?" Susan asked her, well that wasn't really asking it was more of telling her what was going to happen.

"Okay," Anna said with a bit of resistance to her voice. She knew that she couldn't hide what all had been done to her but she wanted to try, deny that it had happened and maybe it would all go away. It was wishful thinking on her part, and she knew that it wouldn't just go away. Was that why there were tears in her eyes now, or was there more to it than just that. She was ashamed of what he had done to her, what she had let him to do her. And right now just didn't want anyone to know that she had.


	14. The Dark Side

**Chapter 14: The dark side**

"Greg can I talk to you out in the hall for a minute," Susan said to the younger resident. "We'll be right back Anna." She said patting her friends hand, "just try and relax."

Anna nodded as she watched them walk out of the trauma room her eyes were starting to grow heavy from the medication now. "Can I sleep?" She asked about to drop off.

"Yeah Anna go ahead," Susan called her hand was on the door as she headed out into the hallway.

"What did you need Dr. Lewis?" Pratt asked.

"I need to talk to Anna for a few minutes but I think it would be better if I talked to her alone." Susan said, "I was thinking maybe you might want to go and get her some clean clothes, something that she would be more comfortable in after surgery than one of those flimsy hospital gowns. She'll have to be here for a few days so that OB can keep an eye on the abruption make sure that it doesn't become anything, I honestly don't think that it will though."

Pratt nodded at her, "do you think he…" Pratt wasn't able to finish that sentence the thought of anyone hurting her that way. It just seemed to be unthinkable.

Susan looked at him, knowing that honesty wasn't always the best policy and she wasn't going to know anything for sure unless she talked to Anna, and whatever Anna told her was going to have to stay between her and Anna. "I don't know Pratt and I won't know until I talk to her. If there is anything to know. She might just be banged up that's all."

Pratt nodded, "you wouldn't tell me either way would you?"

"No I wouldn't." Susan said, "And you know that I wouldn't be able to either. That would have to be her call."

Pratt just once again nodded, "yeah I know." He said rather flatly, "I'll go and get her some clothes and the likes." He turned to move so that he could accomplish the task, "just make sure she knows that I haven't left her, that I'm not going to leave her either, no matter what might have or might not have happened."

"I will Greg," Susan said, "I know that you care about her and I will make sure that she knows the same, you don't have to worry she's in good hands."

"I trust you." That said it all.

"I know." Susan said her hand back on the door to go back into the trauma room, where she could turn her attention back to Anna, who was, from the looks of it asleep now. She didn't know if she wanted to wake her up or if she should just let the poor woman sleep, but this was important for more than one reason. "Anna, are you asleep?"

"You've left me alone for all of five minutes," Anna said from behind closed eyes, "no I haven't made it that far yet, but believe me I want to be." Anna couldn't smell Greg's cologne, "Did Greg go somewhere?"

"Oh I sent your well enamored, devoted, and faithful boyfriend to get you some more comfortable clothes for after you are out of surgery." Susan said sitting down next to the bed.

"Yeah I know he's pretty attentive for a guy." Anna said still not opening her eyes.

"He's worried about you too." Susan said as she started to ease their way into the conversation, she didn't want to come out and straight ask.

"I'm okay." That one was hard for her to say, she was far from okay but needed to put up the front, "of course other than the gapping hole in my shoulder."

"You don't look all that great Anna." Susan said to her, giving her that look, she didn't know Anna all that well even though she was a member of her staff, they really hadn't gotten to know each other all that well and here Susan was trying to get her to open up to her about something that Susan knew was definitely traumatic to say the least.

"Yeah well," Anna said her eyes still closed, "it wasn't that great of an evening. I never should have gone out." She blamed herself for this, in Anna's eyes there was no one else to blame, "did they shoot him?" Anna found herself being drawn to ask. She hated to think that it would have ended that way, but she also wanted to know for her own peace of mind that this nightmare while it was just beginning might have also come to an end.

Susan looked at her with compassion in her eyes, "yes Anna," she said in a soft voice, "they did when he shot you. They didn't have much of a choice then."

"It's okay," Anna said her voice lacking any emotion right now, "they did what they had to do. The man they shot didn't mean anything to me, not anymore."

"Anna," Susan was trying to be patient with her, seeing if she would give her anything on her own, but yet in a way still gently poking her friend, "did Max do anything to you that we need to know about?"

"Other than slam me repeatedly into the wall?" Anna asked back. "Beat me into a bloody mess and then shoot me in the back?"

"Yeah sweetie," Susan said patting Anna's hand some now as she looked down at her. She sat in a chair next to the gurney that Anna was laying on. "I know it is probably very hard to talk about, but if he hurt you honey we need to know."

Anna's voice trembled now as she started to speak, she didn't want to get into this not now, not with Susan, not with Greg, not with anyone, as far as she was concerned Max was the only one who would ever know what he had done to her, and he was dead now so this would never come out into the open as far as she knew, "no he didn't."

"Anna, are you sure?" Susan asked. She was worried about Anna, the way she looked, the way she acted; it was as if she was almost trying to hide something.

"Yeah I am sure." Anna said once more with small tears in her eyes.

"Whatever you say to me Anna stays with me; we don't have to tell Greg." Susan was trying to be as reassuring as she could with her.

"Susan, why would I lie to you?" That one was hard for Anna to say knowing that it wasn't good to hide the truth from them, but inside it's what she knew she needed to do. She had been taken advantage of and it hurt.

"Because it's not something that you would want the world to know about." Susan said point blank now.

Anna just gave Susan a blank stare now, as if she was thinking over what she wanted to say. There were no words that came to mind for she knew what had happened, that it was bad and embarrassing a shame that she wanted to carry alone.

The silence from Anna was enough to let Susan know that she really was hiding something now and she wasn't sure how to get it out of her now. There had to be some small thing, some gentle prod that Susan could use to get her to talk. It wasn't that Anna had shut down on her, just that Anna was almost in a state of denial about all of this, that she wasn't willing to talk about it.

Susan just sat there, as if she was waiting for some wall to come down, that if she waited long enough Anna might actually reach the conclusion that it would be okay to talk to her. But the more she sat there watching Anna drift back towards the land of sleep she knew that she wasn't going to be willing to just come out and say it.

"Anna," she said, knowing that she was now going to be pushing her friend to deal with something that she didn't want to. Susan wished she was wrong, but the bruises on Anna told a completely different story. "What did Max do to you? You have an awful lot of bruises for him just to have pushed you around."

"That's all he did." Anna got extremely defensive with her now. There was no way that she was going to just let it all spill out, no that would be to painful. Her thinking, her rationale was that if she just locked it all away it would stay locked away for ever.

"Are you sure Anna?" Susan was worried especially since she couldn't get Anna to crack one iota to her. This woman was locked tighter than tight into a world of denial. But Susan really didn't have anything to go on that anything else other than her being beaten had occurred. If Anna had been assaulted in any other way Susan needed her to tell her, but Anna was not forthcoming with that information. "We need to know Anna, it's important that you tell us."

Anna was almost asleep now and just wished that they would take her up to surgery, get her shoulder fixed and let her sleep for she was very tired and didn't want to be hounded anymore. "Susan nothing else happened." She was extremely irate right now.

"This wasn't your fault Anna." She said looking down now at her battered colleague. "You are not to blame for this."

Anna's voice held the same tone as if she was a small child being belittled by a parent for having their hand in the cookie jar after being told no. She didn't look at Susan but kept her eyes shut once more. "I know that it wasn't my fault." She replied back. She didn't need to believe it to be able to say it. Besides Susan wasn't there how could she possibly know that it wasn't Anna's fault.

"Anna, look at me." There was forcefulness behind Susan's voice that made Anna's eyes snap open. Once Susan knew that she had Anna's attention she spoke again, "whatever he did to you it was not your fault and you cannot blame yourself for this." She used a hard tone with her but Susan needed to do something to get her to break enough that she would open up to her. "I'm worried about you and Pra… Greg is worried about you, you have friends here who care about you and want to make sure that you are alright, in every way."

There was silence from Anna now as she looked away from Susan. She wanted to roll over with her back to her but Susan was standing on the side of the bed where if Anna did turn away from her she'd be laying on the shoulder that had been shot and as much as she wanted to ignore her nothing was worth the pain that, that would cause.

"Anna being so silent and not talking to me is not going to change anything that might have happened tonight. You are still going to have to live with it. I know that isn't what you want to hear right now and I'm sorry if you feel like I am being hard on you, but really honey whatever you say to me, stays here no one else is going to know what we talk about." Susan was getting more concerned about Anna's well being as the time passed and Anna used pretty effective stall tactics.

Where was surgery when she needed them? What Anna wouldn't give for them to take her upstairs right now so that she didn't have to talk to anyone anymore? If she was unconscious from them fixing the new hole in her shoulder then she couldn't talk, and if she didn't talk it would all be forgot about in a few days. This would all blow over and she could go back to living her happily ever after life with Greg and the baby.

Susan had never seen a woman who could be so stubborn in all her life. She had met some people over her years that wouldn't talk at first but normally once you got them to calm down it eventually started to come out of them. Anna on the other hand, was giving Susan a run for her money. She didn't want to talk, she knew she didn't have to talk, and she was making the choice to either say that nothing happened when it was becoming more obvious to Susan that something had happened.

Anna snuggled a little more under the blankets that were covering her. The silence that was coming from Susan gave her a feeling that maybe she might have one this round and that they were not going to ask her anymore questions, since they had no real reason to suspect that anything other than Anna being beaten had occurred.

"Anna would you please talk to me." Susan poked once more after there had been silence in the room for several minutes.

"Susan would you please leave me alone." That was the simple response that she was given from Anna.

"No." Susan said softly, "not as long as I am worried about you I am not going to let this drop. I know that you have been through a lot tonight, that being grabbed and beaten by your ex-husband was not something that you expected to have happen to you, and it's probably the last thing that you want to talk about with anyone." Susan was going to have to pull out the big guns here and she wasn't afraid to use the leverage that she had in being the chief of emergency medicine with Anna if that's what she had to do.

"No it wasn't on the list of my things to do. I just wanted to get something to eat and go back to work." Anna said in completely emotionless voice.

"Want to tell me what happened?" Susan tried to go at this again.

"What do you want to know, that I went across the street to grab something to eat, he came out of nowhere." Anna said softly, "that he grabbed me and drug me just around the next building so that we were out of sight and he proceeded to turn me into his own private little punching bag."

At least that was a start it might not have been completely what Susan was looking for but it was something and for Anna to say anything was more than she had gotten out of her since they had found themselves in this room together. "You've got a lot of bruises Anna." She knew where she was going with this.

Anna didn't know what to say, she was silent for a minute trying to come up with something that resembled an answer that she thought that Susan would want to say, "Yeah well he threw a lot of punches, got some sick kick out of slapping me around." There was a hurt in her eyes that she was trying to hide.

"Anna, you don't have to be afraid, or worried that anyone else is going to know. What ever he did to you it's not going to change what people think about you. You are still the fun going Anna you were before all of this happened, the only difference is that I now know why my night time residents fear you." She was trying to get Anna comfortable so that maybe just on the off chance she would let something, anything that would give Susan some hint of the idea she was on the right track with Anna. If not she would have to try again when Anna was out of surgery and Pratt was working.

"I'm not afraid." Anna said defensively. God she wished that Susan would just stop this, stop all the pushing, if she wanted to talk and had something of importance to tell she would have said something, "I don't have anything more to tell you Susan, that's all that happened."

Susan just looked at her for a minute, knowing that surgery would be there in a minute or two and that she had pretty much lost her chance to get anything out of her this morning. "Okay, I believe you."

It was the soft sigh that came from Anna that let Susan know that she really had been on the right track with Anna all this time but that it was Anna who didn't want to let anyone in.

Anna heard the door open and watched as the surgeon walked in. "I'm Dr. Dubanko," He said as he walked over to the bed, "I'm going to be taking you upstairs so that we can fix up that shoulder of yours." He said before he actually looked at the patient that had been laying in the bed. Once he made eye contact with her he was a little taken aback. "Dr. Anna." There was a great deal of surprise in his voice, "no one said that it was you."

"What can I say, I love this place so much I didn't want to leave at the end of my shift, and this gives me more than ample reason to stay." There was so much sarcasm in Anna's voice that even the good doctor shuddered.

"Well I don't plan on keeping you all that long," he said, "we'll have you patched up and back home in your own bed, or working down here in the trenches before you know it. Dr. Lewis." He nodded acknowledging the other physician in the room before kicking the breaks off the gurney. "We will take good care of your doctor."

And with that Anna found herself being taken up to the OR. The friendly faces of the OR nurses was the last thing she remembered as she drifted off happily into that drug induced sleep.


	15. Once Bitten Twice Shy

**Chapter 15: Once bitten twice shy.**

Anna was not a happy camper when she awoke from that drug induced sleep, every inch of her body ached. She had her eyes closed thinking that it would keep the pain somewhat at bay but that was a very futile attempt on her part. It was the smells of the room that she was in that was her first clue as to where she was at. Even working for as long as she had in a hospital, you could still tell, for there was a very distinct smell to a hospital room. Sterile and over powering, the smell of clean, not your standard clean but one of a very clean environment. She could fell her own eyes fluttering as if she was caught in the middle ground, wanting to wake up yet the pain was keeping her wanting to stay in the realm of unconsciousness.

"Hey beautiful."

A voice was calling to her, one that she should recognize but in her current state of mind, it was one that she was trying to tune out, not intentionally but more of if you ignore it, it might go way. She didn't want to open her eyes all the way just yet, for the glaring bright whiteness of the room made them ache, shut was much better more soothing to her battered mind and body.

"Hey, you're going to be okay baby, let's see those beautiful eyes of yours." there it was again. It seemed that the ignore it and it shall go away technique was not working. The voice wanted her to open her eyes and it seemed now that it shouldn't go away unless she did what was being requested of her.

Anna wished that she wasn't even as far with it right now as what she was. Yet she found her head turning towards the voice and forcing her eyes open knowing that it was probably Greg that was there with her. She wanted to say just go away but knew that would be rude. Gingerly and with more effort than she really wanted to put forth at the time she opened them for him. Perhaps that would make him happy and perchance she might get to go back to sleep.

"How you feeling?"

For Anna that was a loaded question, one that she had an instant answer for but thought twice about letting the cockiness come through in her voice right now. Truth be told she had muscle that ached that even as a doctor she didn't know she had. Her head wasn't pounding but foggy, as if someone was holding her eyes half shut even though they were both fully open. She blinked now twice thinking it would clear some of the fogginess but when it didn't she knew it was just the hold that the medications had on her, and that was one break she wasn't willing to make right now.

"I hurt." Anna whispered out. Her voice horse and raw from the tube that had been down it while she had been in surgery. Her shoulder hurt from where the bullet had torn through her flesh and yet she was thankful even with all the pain that she was still alive.

"Yeah. I bet baby."

She could feel a hand on her head pushing her hair back away from her face and gently tucking it behind her ear. Yeah I bet, what kind of an answer was that. Where was the offer to make her more comfortable or the offer to let her go back to sleep? She wasn't getting either of those right now and well frankly that is what she really wanted.

"You tired?"

Okay that was getting her a little closer to what she wanted to what her body needed right now. Took him long enough to get around to asking, I mean if it was him laying there in that bed she knew, mostly because he was a man, that he'd be begging for pain medications, or for his pillows to be fluffed, and extra blanket, cause damn she realized that it was cold in that room and her feet were freezing right now.

"Yeah." Anna finally managed to answer him with out loud words rather than words in her head.

"I should let you get some sleep."

Now that was the answer she had been waiting for. It finally clicked in that male brain of his that perhaps she wasn't up for company after all she had been beaten up, hurt in more ways than one, shot in the back and figured after all of that she deserved to have some time to sleep. Yet there was one question in the back of her mind that she wanted answered.

"Greg," she reached out now very slowly as it hurt to move more than she thought it would but once she began the motion to touch him she figured it would hurt more to stop and start again than it would to just get that first simple movement over and out of the way.

"What Anna?"

She took a deep breath almost afraid of what the answer might be, hoping that she would get the same one she had gotten before surgery now that it was behind her, "is the baby okay?"

Even though she wasn't looking at him anymore, her eyes had resumed a closed position; he had a smile on his face. Here he had been more concerned about her right now than the child of his that she was carrying. Not that Greg didn't love the baby already, he just didn't want to be raising a child alone, he needed her to be okay in order for the baby to be okay, the were both interdependent upon each other right now. "Yeah honey," he said his voice soft as he took her hand into his and gave it a soft kiss, "the baby is fine you don't have to worry, you are both okay."

Anna debated that she was okay, but her precious child was alright and that was important to her. Anna never dreamed that she would have the opportunity to have a baby that she would feel as loved as she did as when she was with Greg, and yet a few hours ago that was all being threatened and she knew how close she had come to losing all of it. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah baby I'm sure." He said trying to reassure the best that he could, he knew that some of this was the result of medications; some of it was just motherly worry. He knew right now that he didn't want her stressing out over something that was indeed okay.

Anna nodded from behind closed eyes; she was being pulled back into a deep sleep again.

Greg softly kissed the top of her head and stroked her hair as he watched her with his worried eyes. This was no where he thought that she would be after running next door for a snack but then he knew before she left that he had, had a bad feeling that something was going to happened, he just never imagined that it would be this. That someone who proclaimed to love her with all that they were could hurt her so badly.

He wanted to take her into his arms to make all of this just go away for both of them, but touching her, holding her it was out of the question right now. He didn't want to hurt her and she looked rather pale and so tired on that bed. Yet with her eyes closed Anna looked so beautiful so peaceful right now. His eyes went to where her arms now laid crossed over her belly, where their child was housed, you could see the first little flutters of the life that was inside of her and Greg was a loss for words for what he was seeing. That was his baby girl in there making her stomach move. He reached his hand out almost afraid to touch her right now but yet he found himself drawn to the movements of his girl. He ever so gently put his hand where he had seen the movement and for a moment all was still.

Anna cracked an eye open to see what he was doing a hint of a smile moved across her face for she had felt the baby moving and knew what he was doing now with his hand. Her eyes were on him watching him knowing that his eyes were fixated upon her stomach now not on her. His eyes got wide and his smile grew when Isabella kicked her father's hand. Anna had never seen him smile as he was smiling now, she knew the power that girls had over their father's and Greg was no exception to that. Anna watched him as the awe of fatherhood seemed to have began to embrace him. Her worries about the baby and her safety had eased when she felt the flutter of movement start up again.

"Amazing isn't it?" She said in her still soft and sleepy voice as her eyes started to shut again against her will, Anna knew that it wouldn't be long before she was sleeping again and she wanted to make the most of her time awake.

"It is." Greg's voice was so soft right now that Anna could barely make out what he was saying. "That's our baby." A baby's first kick was something that you only experienced once, feeling it for the first time was an overwhelming experience that made the pregnancy seem more real.

It was one thing to know that you were pregnant, to suffer through the morning sickness to see your belly growing a little more every day, but it never seemed to be real to you until you felt that quick little flutter come from within. You knew that it was real, that there was something inside of you, needing you, depending on you. Yet it was hard to picture that there really could be a baby in there and at times you had to really wonder if this was all really real.

"That she is." Anna said softly back to him as a yawn escaped from her mouth, "your little girl."

"My little girl." He repeated back. Something that he wanted becoming a reality, the ultrasound had made it seem real to him as he had looked at the pictures that had been on the screen, and yet now here he was his hand on Anna's stomach and in some way he felt as if Isabella was saying hello to him, knowing that he was there. He leaned in closer to Anna's stomach and softly whispered, "hey baby girl, don't you worry daddy's going to take good care of you and your mommy."

Anna smiled hearing that as she drifted off to sleep. Knowing that he would indeed protect her, her greatest threat was no longer a threat to her, and her secret was one that she could indeed keep inside her for all time, Greg and Isabella were now her family and while Greg wanted to protect them both, Anna wanted to protect them from knowing what had really happened out there. Her greatest wish right now was that she would be able to forget it all in time and move on, get that second chance start on life, leave all the bad times behind her and move forward with happiness to look forward to.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Don't ask me

Anna spent several days in the hospital, most of it sleeping and trying to recover from what had happened. At least recover from the physical damage that had been done. She wasn't going to let anyone into the personal hell that she had found her emotional persona in. She could deal with herself or that's what she kept telling herself when the nightmares gripped her and she awoke from them.

The baby inside of her was keeping her sane. She wanted her daughter and for her child to never feel the pain and hell that she was right now. Greg was there ever chance that he got and yet Anna couldn't bring herself to get close to him. She kept her distance and was more withdrawn than she had been.

Today was the day that she was supposed to be able to go home after spending nearly a week in the hospital. She wanted to be able to be in her own bed most of all right now and Greg said that he would take her home after his shift was through. She spoke with all her doctors and even Dr. Meyers had come by one more time in an attempt to get something out of her but she said nothing other than that she was fine and wanted nothing more than to go home.

"Are you about ready to blow this joint?" Greg asked as he walked into her room.

"Yeah I am." Anna answered moving off the bed now. "Cleared, cleared again, and I am so ready to go home please."

"Did you talk with Dr. Meyers?" He asked looking at her with his soft dark eyes.

"Yes I did." Anna said now as she finished getting off the bed, "and really I am fine I just want to go home, do you think that we can do that please." Anna was short with him right now but she really did just want to go home.

"Yeah we can." He said as he walked out into the hallway to find a wheel chair to get her out of there. He knew she wasn't supposed to be on her feet and that if she wanted to leave that was the way that she was getting out of there.

Anna sighed when she watched him leave the room. That wasn't what she was expecting from him walking out of the room without her.

Greg came back a few minutes later to a seemingly upset Anna. "We can go now, do you have your discharge papers?"

"Yes I do." She said her voice was quiet and soft.

"Is this everything that you have?" He asked as he looked at the single duffle bag sitting on the table at the end of the bed.

"Yes." That was Anna's answer again. She was feeling tired now and just wanted to get out of there and it almost felt like he was stalling not wanting her to be able to go home.

"Okay then, have a seat and we'll get out of here." He said standing now offering her a hand to move.

"Thank you." She whispered out not touching him as she moved into the chair so that they could go. There was something about having someone behind her even Greg that was making her extremely unnerved.

He started to slowly push her out of the room being extra careful and cautious with her. He could tell that something was off but with everything that she had gone through he really didn't feel that it was right of him to push her that hard right now. "You okay?"

"Yes I am fine." Her vocabulary tonight was very limited with him and even if she didn't mean to she knew what she was projecting wasn't anything overly boding in the good direction. "I'm just tired." She said keeping her voice soft.

"We'll be home soon and you can sleep in your own bed tonight." He noticed how soft her voice was with him tonight. "I'm sure that will be nice for you."

Anna watched as they left her floor and then down the elevator just thinking of how nice it was going to be to get home and forget all of this if that was going to be possible. "Yes it will be nice." The air outside was a little chilly now and she couldn't help but shiver.

"I'm sorry." He said stopping for two seconds and pulling her coat out of the bag that was with them setting it over her shoulders before picking up his pace. "It's cold out here I should have warned you." He pushed her over to his car and opened up the door for her making sure she was settled before handing the wheel chair off and going to get in.

There was near silence in the car now as the two of them drove across town. There wasn't tension in the car just neither of them had much to say to the other. Anna not wanting to talk and Greg thinking she was just overly tired.

He pulled into the apartment building parking spot and turned off the car being going around helping her out and started them up the stairs. "Here you go." He said as he pushed the door open to the apartment and the warmth hit her.

Anna went inside and flopped down on the couch, "oh god this feels good." She said snuggling down into it and pulling her blanket off the back of his couch so that she could be nice and warm.

He sat down next to her, "what are you thinking you might like for dinner?" He said, "or did they feed you before you left?"

Honest question and the least that she could do was give him an honest answer, "I kind of had a late lunch and have been snacking off and on." She said, "I don't know if I'm overly hungry right now."

"Okay well let me know if you change your mind and I can get you something okay?"

Anna just nodded as her eyes went closed and she decided that right now it would just be better to take a nap, that's what she really wanted to do anyway, even with as late as it was in the evening, taking one now wasn't going to hurt.

Greg got up fixed himself a sandwich before heading in to take a shower. Changing into more comfortable clothes, when he came back out Anna was out like a light. He thought about picking her up and moving her into the bedroom but she looked warm and comfortable there on the couch. Pregnant women seemed to be able to sleep just about anywhere when they were tired. He watched a little bit of TV before getting up making sure everything was locked up and turned off the lights making sure she was still covered up before going into bed.

Anna slept that night there on the couch, comfortable and peaceful with no one touching her from under the warmth of her blanket and the smells of her environment more comforting and feeling much more at home than she had while in the hospital. She'd get better, somehow she'd find the way to put all of this behind her.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Anna was now at home and taking it very easy. Fourteen weeks had turned into sixteen weeks and then twenty weeks while she was in the hospital. She'd been there nearly a month. That had given her time to recover from the physical injuries, have pt done on her shoulder and many visits with Dr. Meyer's in which none of the truth had managed to find its way out of her.

With her reluctance to talk about what had happened and as few details as she was willing to give out. The ordeal manifested itself in the form of nightmares that would wake her up from her sleep with her heart racing and usually tears flowing down the side of her face.

Greg would generally be woken up by her and every time Anna would tell him the same thing. That everything was okay that she'd just had a bad dream and to go back to sleep, that she didn't remember what the dream was about just that it had scared her enough to wake her up. She honestly didn't want to talk about it, but she did remember it all to well. The dream was always so life-like and she knew it was real. The events of that night a month ago so fresh in her mind right there for her to relive every night when she laid her head down on the pillow. But it was her way right now of dealing with it, was to rather not deal with it.

She had an ob appointment today. She'd gotten Meyers to say that from a mental standpoint there was no reason why she couldn't work. It was just up to Coburn now to clear her. Anna was pretty sure however that wasn't going to happen. She wanted to have a healthy baby, but sitting at home alone for the most part when Greg was working was driving her insane. Not that she'd admit that one to anyone either.

In her mind if she could just get back to doing what she was good at, then she could focus on that. She'd been trying to just focus on getting ready for the baby but even with that there was only so much that she could do. She was sitting on the couch waiting now for Greg to come and pick her up so that she could go. He was only working a half shift today, for some reason he rather enjoyed going with her to the visits with the OB doctor and seeing what new little things were going on with their daughter. Isabelle was growing just fine inside her mother. Twenty-four weeks were under her belt. 6 months down and only three more to go. With Anna's small frame and the way that the baby was sitting she felt like she was huge, even though she really wasn't. You could clearly tell by looking at her that she was indeed pregnant. That round bulge shifted and changed on a daily basis.

She heard keys in the front door and looked up to see Greg come in to the apartment. He looked about as tired as she felt. "Hi honey."

"Hey baby, you ready to go?" He asked her as he came over to the couch where she was sitting.

"Yeah, ready as I'll ever be." She answered scooting a little so that he would be able to sit down for a minute. She was trying to keep some distance between them but not act like that's what she was doing.

"We'll go in a minute." He said looking over at her.

"Sure sounds good to me." She stood up to go finish getting ready. She at least wanted to change her shirt so that she didn't look as if she'd been sleeping in it, which she had been cat napping on the couch since she wasn't sleeping all that well at night.

"You get a nap in today?" She heard him call as she walked into the bedroom.

"Yeah I did." Anna answered as she pulled some cleaner clothes out of the closet and made quick work of changing.

"Been off your feet?"

What was he the question police or something today? "Yes Greg." Anna answered her voice a little short with him as she headed back into the other room now.

"Kick counts good?"

She wasn't in the mood for twenty questions today, but she knew she needed to answer him or he would think that there was something wrong with the baby and that was far from the case. "Yes, baby is active."

"Are you okay?"

"Jesus Christ Greg." Anna snapped now. "Yes I am absolutely fine."

"Okay." He said backing off from asking her anything else right now. There was something about the tone of her voice that instantly shut him up.

Anna eased herself back down on the couch to wait for him trying to stay off her feet as much as she could when he was around. There was only so much sitting down and staying still that one person could do. Now granted Anna really shouldn't have snapped at him like she had. "I'm sorry." It took her a minute before she apologized to him, but she made the effort. "I'm tired and I shouldn't be taking it out on you."

"It's okay Anna." He stated simply. He was getting used to her mood swings little by little. "You don't owe me anything."

Aye that wasn't what she wanted to hear. He seemed to be more than willing to let her obnoxious behavior slide.

"We can go." He moved to get up off the couch. Anna had just sat back down and she sighed heavily now as she moved to hoist herself back up so that she was standing once again.

She moved towards the door ambling along slowly just out of habit now that her center of balance was starting to constantly shift. She picked up her bag from where it had been sitting by the door and moved outside. Now during the daylight hours she was more than okay with going outside. Night time was a different story. While she knew that Max wasn't there to get her anymore. She was afraid that somehow he was still there lurking in the shadows just waiting for her to let down her guard and grab her again. She hated that even in death he had this never ending hold on her and her actions.

"Anna, are you sure you are okay?"

She heard Greg's voice and it snapped her from her thoughts. She hadn't realized that she had gotten lost in them and had slowed way down. "Yeah sorry I was just thinking it's nothing." She started moving a little faster again, albeit not much faster.

She got down the stairs and to the car without much trouble. This was a good thing. She waited for him to unlock the door so that she could get in. They were going to need a bigger vehicle once the baby got there. There wasn't much room in his little sports car. It was perfect for just the two of them but for three it wasn't going to be practical for long.

Once the door was unlocked she lowered herself down and slipped into the passenger seat, having to work to get the door closed. It was just a little bit out of her reach and she really had to lean to get to it. Even that was getting harder to do. She never dreamed how being pregnant like this would change the way she did things and the adjustments that she was going to have to make.

"Susan wants me to cover a shift tonight." He said as they started to drive. "I told her I'd talk to you and then give her an answer."

"That's fine Greg." Anna would never keep him from working hours.

"They're a little short handed." He said as he drove back towards the hospital where Anna's OB was located. Greg was just trying to make conversation in the car as they drove so that they wouldn't be sitting there in silence.

"It's really okay." Anna said "all goes my way you won't be short handed."

"You're not thinking about going back to work are you?"

"Yeah actually I am." Anna answered back.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea Anna." Greg said.

"Why not, do you have a reason that I am unaware of?" She looked over at him from her seat in the car. "Do you honestly expect me to sit at home for the next few weeks doing nothing?"

"In the best interest of Isabelle yeah." He answered rather quickly. "You have to be careful; working long hours in the ER isn't going to be good for either one of you."

"Sitting at home doing nothing but watching soap opera's all day pretty soon isn't going to be good for you." Anna said rather short with him again.

"I know that you want to Anna, but you have to do what's best for the baby right now." He got quiet for a minute, "I know you and that you would never forgive yourself if you did something that caused any harm to the baby."

She was silent now as she tried to formulate what she was going to say back to him. She didn't want to be having this conversation with him. She damn well knew that she was going to do what ever she was told that she could. If Coburn said she could go back to work then that's what she was going to do. "If Coburn says that it's okay then I am going back to work, there's nothing for us to discuss regarding that."

"We don't discuss anything anyway Anna." He said back just as short and matter of fact with her.

"What's that suppose to mean Greg?"

"We don't talk Anna. I ask you something and you respond with you are fine or you just dog the conversation period." He said now as he pulled into the parking lot of the medical building.

"We talk about what's important and I answer all the questions that you ask me whether I feel like it or not." She said as she took off her seat belt now that he had the car parked.

"That's not what I am talking about and you know it." He said as he looked over at her now. "Eventually we are going to have to talk."

"I'm not getting into an argument with you right now." Anna said as she pushed the door open to get out.

"Anna, I only have so much patience." He said, "I've been more than respectful of your feelings with everything that happened, but it's starting to get in the way of things."

"No it's not." She said as she got all the way out of the car and pushed the door shut. "Everything with me is just fine and it's not affecting my life, I won't let it affect my life." She started to head from the garage towards the medical entrance. "I will not let it." There was anger now behind Anna's voice as she started walking.

She was angry and she wasn't about to admit to anyone what had actually happened that night. She was in denial and she wanted to stay there. The thought plan was that if she didn't think about it, the she could just in time forget that it happened and her life would return to normal. She didn't see, or couldn't see what was really happening to her how it was affect her and those around her.

Greg didn't want to upset her anymore than she already was and he figured that he would just broach the subject again once they left. The appointment would take about an hour and he'd have time to talk to her about things after. The one thing that he didn't count on was Coburn not giving Anna the okay to go back to work and her reaction to it. While she didn't say anything to Coburn or show any hint of being unhappy with her state of affairs right now. She did rather than head for the garage after the appointment start walking the direction of the river.

"Anna wait," Greg called as he tried to catch up with her.

"No right now Greg." Anna said now that she was outside and headed away from everyone she figured it was better to storm out here alone than around anyone. Get it out of her system and then she'd be fine, well in theory.

"Stop walking for a minute." Greg said as he reached forward to grab her arm.

Anna about jumped out of her skin not realizing just how close behind her he had gotten. She wanted to burst into tears feeling an arm from behind her touch her skin. She spun around; she couldn't hide that fear that had fallen over her face.

When Anna turned spun around like that Greg instantly let go of her. There was a look of sheer terror on his girlfriend's face one that he hadn't meant to put on there. "Anna I'm sorry." He said as he took a step back from her. This just reinforced in his mind how badly the two of them needed to talk. No matter what she told him he could clearly see by that she wasn't okay.

"Just… just don't." Anna said taking a few more steps back away from him. She hadn't meant to react like that and it honestly scared her to feel those intense feelings again. "I'll meet… I'll meet you at home." She needed some time to herself or so she thought.

"Let me give you a ride back to the apartment." Greg said not coming any closer to her but not backing away anymore. "It's a long walk; I'd feel better if you just let me take you home."

She wanted to be alone for a little while, to decompress from everything, to be able to be mad with no one watching over her like she was going to break. But that didn't seem to be what was going to happen. She knew that he would stay glued to her side now. Slowly but with a great deal of effort she turned to head for the garage where the car was parked. She just wanted to ride in silence for a little while. But something told her that silence would be short lived and she'd have to think of something to tell him.


End file.
